In the first quarter of this year, the European Union's 27 ports handled 833.3 million tonnes of cargo. The data, made known by Eurostat, totaled a 1.2% percent increase over the same period in 2021 and represents a further easing of the trend of recovery in the volumes of cargoes that began in the second quarter of 2021. In addition, the first three months of 2022 were down -0.9% percent from the same period in 2020, when in Europe, the first effects of the Covid-19 pandemic began, and a -5.1% percent decline compared with the first quarter. of 2019 when the health crisis had not yet begun.

Relatively to the main national port systems of the EU by volume of traffic, in the first quarter of this year the ports of the Netherlands handled 142.3 million tonnes of goods, with decreases of -2.2%, -2.0% and -10.6% respectively on the corresponding periods of 2021, 2020 and 2019. In growth, instead, the volumes of goods handled by Turkey's ports that in the first three months of 2022 amounted to 133.8 million tons, with increases of 9.2% percent, + 5.8% and 18.1% percent on the same periods of 2021, 2020 and 2019 respectively. To follow, the ports of Spain have handled 119.6 million tonnes of cargo (respectively + 5.1%, + 1.7% and -2.9%), those of Italy 111.7 million tonnes (-1.1%, 0% and -5.7%), the port airports of Belgium 73.0 million tonnes (+ 3.0%, + 1.8% and 11.0%), the ports of Germany 70.8 million tonnes (-0.5%, + 0.2% and -4.6%), the ports of France 66.1 million tonnes (+ 0.8%, -6.3% and -12.8%), the ports of Norway 45.3 million tonnes (-5.0%, -9.6% and 2.8%), the scars of Sweden 43.7 million tonnes (+ 3.2%, + 0.7% and 1.1%), those of Greece 35.0 million tonnes (-8.4%, -17.8% and -15.8%) and the ports of Poland 25.4 million tonnes (+ 3.7%, + 15.2% and 9.4%).

As for the main types of goods handled in the first quarter of this year from the EU ports to 27, the total liquid bulk bulk was 295.4 million tonnes, an increase of 2.7% over the same period in 2021 and with decreases of -4.6% and -8.2% respectively on the first quarters of 2020 and 2019 ; containerized goods totaled 201.3 million tonnes (-5.1%, -4.6% and -2.7% respectively) ; solid bulk bulk cargoes stood at 183.2 million tonnes (+ 2.9%, + 2.4% and -6.6%) ; the data of the rotables was 101.0 million tonnes (+ 4.4%, + 7.7% and 0.9%) ; the other goods amounted to 52.4 million tonnes (+ 6.0%, + 10.7% and -2.2%).