Accredited official statistics

Port freight quarterly statistics: October to December 2021

Provisional quarterly statistics on freight handled by UK major ports for October to December 2021.

Documents

Port freight quarterly statistics: October to December 2021 tables

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Details

Following user feedback, the Department for Transport 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).

When comparing October to December 2021 with October to December 2020 through UK major ports:

  • total freight tonnage decreased by less than half a percent to 112.3 million tonnes.
  • inward tonnage increased by 3% to 73.7 million tonnes
  • outward tonnage decreased by 6% to 38.6 million tonnes
  • total volume of unitised traffic decreased by 5% to 4.7 million units
  • inward units decreased by 6% to 2.5 million units
  • outward units decreased by 4% to 2.2 million units

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

  • total tonnage increased by 2% to 436.4 million tonnes
  • total volume of unitised traffic increased by 2% to 18.3 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 16 March 2022

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