In 2023, the volume of goods handled by the port of Palermo reached a new all-time high of 8.27 million tonnes, an increase of +7.0% on the year of which 3.10 million tonnes at loading (+19.2%) and A record number of unloaded cargoes amounted to 5.17 million tonnes (+0.9%). The new traffic peak has been achieved thanks to the all-time record of rolling stock traffic, which totalled 7.51 million tonnes (+9.9%). Goods are also on the rise containerized with 165 thousand tons (+16.3%) and liquid bulk with 479 thousand tons (+24.5%). Dry bulk has decreased by -67.2% to 123 thousand tonnes. In the field of passenger traffic was 2.54 million people (+28.2%), including 940,000 cruise passengers (+69.5%) - of which 173,000 as home ports (+69.9%) and 767 thousand in transit (+69.5%) - and 1.47 million ferry passengers (+12.1%).

In the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, the port of Palermo handled 2.17 million tonnes of goods, with a increase of +18.5% on the same period of the previous year, of which 1.38 million tons at landing (+15.4%) and 792 thousand tonnes at loading (+24.3%).

In the whole of 2023, the entire port system administered by the Port Authority of the Western Sicilian Sea, consisting of the ports of call of Palermo, Termini Imerese, Trapani and Porto Empedocle, a total of 10.80 million tonnes of goods (+4.4%), of which 1.43 million tons in Termini Imerese (+4.8%), 606 thousand tons in Trapani (+3.8%) and 484 thousand tons in Porto Empedocle (-27,2%).