Still by sea: marine transport still plays a significant role in international trade

Marine transport still plays a significant role in international trade in the European Union. In 2015 more than half of EU Member States transport goods, for trade, by sea, with 53% of EU imports entering the EU by sea and 48% of exports leaving the EU to third countries by sea.

Sea trade in the EU has slightly increased over the last 10 years. In 2006 less than half (47%) of the EU trade in goods with third countries was conducted by sea. In 2015 it was 51%.

Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg – all of them North Sea coastal cities – were the top three EU cargo ports in 2014. The ten largest EU cargo ports accounted for nearly a third of the total tonnage of goods handled across all EU ports. Rotterdam in the Netherlands was the busiest cargo port in 2014 (422 million tonnes or 11% of the EU total), followed by Antwerp in Belgium (180 million tonnes at 5%), Hamburg in Germany (126 million tonnes at 3%), Amsterdam in the Netherlands (97 million tonnes at 3%), Algeciras in Spain (76 million tonnes at 2%) and Marseilles in France (74 million tonnes at 2%).

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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