Last year, freight traffic in German ports was piled to 279,1 million tons, with a decrease of -3,2% on the 2021. The German Federal Statistical Office has announced that the 2022 total is also lower than the level before the crisis of the Covid pandemic marking the data of the last year a decrease of -4.9% regarding the 293,5 million tons of goods handled in 2019.

Destatis has specified that in 2022 the imports of goods from abroad through German ports have recorded a contained decrease of -1.5%, while it turned out much more accentuated the reduction (-7.0%) of goods exported through national port ports.

Last year the German port which is enlivened the largest volume of cargo was Hamburg with 103.4 million of tons (-7.2% on 2021), followed at a clear distance by Bremerhaven (42.8 million tonnes, -8.7%), Wilhelmshaven (31.8 million tonnes) million tonnes, +7.6%), Rostock (21.3 million tonnes, -3.2%) and Lübeck (16.4 million tonnes, -6.9%).

In 2022, Sweden overtook Russia to become the partner most important for Germany's maritime trade. The Last year, in fact, the traffic enlivened from German ports from and for Sweden it stood at 24,4 million tonnes, followed by Norway (22.7 million tonnes), United States (22.0 million tons) and the People's Republic Chinese (20.9 million tons). The Russian Federation, which in the 2021 was still the most important partner country, last year year ranked only seventh with 13.4 million tons of goods handled, of which 93.4% in import from Russia. Destatis specified that, following the sanctions imposed due to the war unleashed on 24 February 2022 from Russia against Ukraine, during 2022 the movement maritime cargo with the Russian Federation has decreased drastically and almost three-quarters of the volume was Eventful in the first half of the year.

With regard only to fuel import traffic fossil fuels (coal, crude oil and natural gas), the Office Federal Statistics has announced that in 2022 this flow of goods has increased of +13.9% going up to 36,1 million Tons. Almost a third (31.5%) of this traffic was represented by coal and two-thirds (67.6%) crude oil. The The most important supplier country was the USA, from whose Ports arrived 7.5 million tons of fuels fossils, equal to about one fifth (21.0%) of total imports. Norway follows with 5.8 million tons and the Federation Russian with 5.7 million tons. In 2021 Russia was still the most important trading partner of German ports for fossil fuels with 12.1 million tons and a share of 38.2% of the total.

As for container traffic, last year in ports Germans has been pairs to 13,9 million teu, with a decrease of the -6.3% compared to the 14.8 million teu of 2021 (year in which the traffic had increased by +5.8% compared to 2020). The 2022 figure is also lower than the 2019 pre-pandemic level of 15,0 million teu. In 2022, China accounted for more than a fifth (21.5%) of containerized trade in German ports, followed by the United States with a share of just over a tenth (10.2%). Last year, three Chinese ports were among the Five most important foreign partner ports in relation to Container traffic: the most important partner airport is state Shanghai with 893,000 teu, followed by Singapore (576,000 teu), Ningbo (508,000 teu), New York (403,000 teu) and Shenzhen (391,000 teu) teu).