After five consecutive quarters of growth, in the third quarter of 2022, freight traffic at European Union ports had a slight decrease of -0.7% percent from the previous year. Eurostat said that in the July-September period last year, overall traffic was 860.4 million tonnes compared with 866.5 million in the third quarter of 2021.

The decline was mainly the decline in containerized traffic, in place since the last quarter of 2021, which in the third quarter of 2022 amounted to 196.6 million tonnes (-8.0%). In addition, the traffic of the rotables that totaled 96.0 million tonnes (-7.2%) was also decreasing. Liquid and dry bulk were increased by 3.3% percent and 4.2% percent, respectively, to 319.0 million and 198.0 million tonnes. The traffic in other goods was also slightly higher than 50.8 million tonnes (+ 0.7%).

Among the European nations whose ports handle the largest volume of goods traffic, in the third quarter of last year, the volumes handled by the ports of the Netherlands (151.8 million tonnes, + 2.3%), of Turkey, have been growing. (133.7 million tonnes, + 0.8%) and of France (72.5 million tonnes, + 7.4%), while the volumes of cargoes handled by the ports of Spain (122.0 million tonnes, -0.6%), Italy (113.3 million tonnes, -13.8%), were found. Germany (70.2 million tonnes, -3.1%), Belgium (69.6 million tonnes, -0.9%), Norway (48.3 million tonnes, -7.1%), Sweden (41.7 million tonnes, -2.5%) and Greece (41.1 million tonnes, -3.5%).