Accredited official statistics

Port freight annual statistics 2023: Arrivals

Published 17 July 2024

Proposed discontinuation of arrivals statistics

Arrivals statistics are published by the Department for Transport. The maritime and shipping statistics team is looking to gather your views on the relevance of the arrivals statistical outputs (report and tables) as we are considering their discontinuation. Do you currently use these statistics, and would their discontinuation cause a problem? Please send your feedback via email to [email protected].

These are official statistics. For more information, see the About these statistics section.

Vessel arrivals statistics

The Department for Transport (DfT) procure world shipping fleet data via open competition. In April 2022, the contract was awarded to Sea/ by Maritech for the first time. Therefore, the world fleet information as of December 2023 used in this release is based on data supplied by Sea/ while previous years are based on data provided by IHS. DfT conducted sensitivity checks between the 2 data sources and found that deadweight and gross tonnage were comparable. Therefore, this release makes year-on-year comparisons between the 2 data sources, but these should be used with some caution. More details about the changes to our data can be found in the notes and definitions.

The figures in this report largely exclude domestic ferries such as to and from the Isle of Wight. The PORT06 tables cover all vessels arriving at all UK ports, whilst this page only covers arrivals at UK major ports.

The methods used to compile these figures changed in 2018. 2017 figures using the previous and current method are provided in the PORT06 tables for comparison. Further details are provided in the notes and definitions.

Definitions

Gross Tonnage (GT) is the measurement of the ship’s internal volume (for example, the space on the ship).

Deadweight Tonnage (DWT) is the maximum weight, in tonnes, a ship can carry in terms of cargo, fuel and stores, before reaching its load line mark.

Vessel arrivals at UK major ports

An estimated total of 84,527 cargo vessels arrived at UK major ports during 2023, 2% less than in 2022. However, the total deadweight tonnage (DWT) for all cargo vessels arrived at UK major ports increased by 0.6% – this means fewer, but larger, vessels arrived at UK ports in 2023 (note: DWT is an indicator of the vessel cargo carrying size only, not whether the vessel space has been used to full capacity). Liverpool and Loch Ryan accounted for most of the decrease in the number of vessel arrivals in 2023. The decline may be explained by the closing of a service from one of the operators on the Liverpool-Dublin ferry route (PORT0602).

Chart 23 is a stacked bar chart which shows the ports with the highest number of vessel arrivals, split by how many of these are roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) vessels or non Ro-Ro vessels. The ports with the highest number of vessel arrivals tend to be those with regular ferry (Ro-Ro) services, such as Dover (20% of all vessels arriving at UK major ports). Ports with the highest number of other cargo vessels (such as, non Ro-Ro) include those handling the most freight tonnage, such as Grimsby and Immingham, London, and Belfast.

Chart 23: Top 10 UK major ports with most cargo vessel arrivals in thousands, 2023 (PORT0602)

Chart 24 shows the proportions of arrivals, deadweight tonnage and gross tonnage for each vessel type. Ro-Ro vessels accounted for 60% of all cargo vessel arrivals in major ports in 2023. While container vessels (fully cellular) only accounted for 9% of UK arrivals in 2023, they account for a much larger proportion of DWT (29%) – a measure of cargo carrying capacity.

Chart 24: Cargo vessels arriving at UK major ports by ship type, 2023 (PORT0602)

Charts 25 and 26 consist of line charts of container vessel arrivals to UK major ports, by number of vessels and deadweight, between 2013 and 2023.

Between 2013 and 2017, the number of container vessels arriving at UK major ports stayed relatively stable, whereas the total DWT and GT arriving have increased - reflecting an increase in average vessel size for container ships. However, the fall in vessel arrivals in 2020 was substantial enough to lead to a drop in DWT and GT. Since 2021, the trend has levelled off and this has continued in 2023.  

Charts 25 and 26: Container vessels arriving at UK major port, by number of arrival and deadweight, 2013 to 2023 (PORT0602)

Background information

The tables give further detail of the key results presented in this statistical release. They are available from port and domestic waterborne freight statistics.

These notes provide further information such as definitions and a list of UK ports is available in the accompanying table index.

The background quality report provides further information on how the data is collected, quality assured and comparisons with relevant data sources.

Details of Ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found on the pre-release access list.

Related data sources

His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes data on tonnage and value to a much more granular commodity level for goods traded internationally. Comparisons between port freight and this source, specifically for certain cargo categories, are explored further in our notes and definitions.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (formerly Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) publish the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) which covers the production and consumption of fuels and energy in the UK.

Information on freight moved by different modes, including a breakdown of domestic freight is available in Transport Statistics Great Britain.

Eurostat publish comparative port freight data for European Union countries, which can be used to compare UK ports to those in EU countries.

About these statistics

These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Statistics on vessel arrivals are outside the scope of National Statistics and are based on data from a number of sources including the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and CERS (Consolidated European Reporting System) data.

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