Accredited official statistics

Port freight quarterly statistics: July to September 2021

Provisional quarterly statistics on freight handled by UK major ports for July to September 2021.

Documents

Port freight quarterly statistics: July to September 2021 tables

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Details

Following user feedback, DfT are trialling publishing estimates of cargo group alongside the quarterly Port Freight Statistics, in a proposed third quarterly table PORT0503. This has been published containing current quarter data for the second time.

This new data is regarded as Experimental Statistics, awaiting user feedback and further quality assurance to provide timely estimates. You can provide feedback about this change by filling in this form. We continue to welcome any feedback on any aspect of the port freight statistics (see contact details).

Total freight tonnage increased by 6% to 110.9 million tonnes. To note, we are now comparing to the second quarter affected by the UK lockdown so increases can be interpreted as a return to more normal levels. (see timeline below).

When comparing July to September 2021 with July to September 2020 through UK major ports:

  • all directions and metrics showed substantial increases on 2020 quarter 3 levels (July to September)
  • inward tonnage increased by 9% to 72.6 million tonnes
  • outward tonnage increased by 2% to 38.3 million tonnes
  • total volume of unitised traffic increased by 3% to 5.1 million units
  • inward units increased by 4% to 2.7 million units
  • outward units increased by 3% to 2.4 million units

When comparing the rolling year to September 2021 with September 2020 through UK major ports:

  • total tonnage increased by less than 1% to 436.9 million tonnes
  • total volume of unitised traffic increased by 1% to 18.7 million units

Detailed final annual statistics for 2021 will be published in summer 2022.

Further information about these statistics is available, including:

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Updates to this page

Published 15 December 2021

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