Last year, French ports moved globally 280.7 million tons of freight, down -4.6% on 2022 which was generated by a -8.5% reduction in volumes moved in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year which was followed by a decline in the -2.2% in the following quarter, a decrease of -6.4% in the following quarter. third quarter and a -1.3% contraction in volumes in the last quarter of 2023.

In the whole of 2023 in the containerized cargo sector alone 43.4 million tonnes were handled, with a marked down -13.3% on the previous year. Container traffic measured on the basis of the 20' foot containers handled, it is over 4.8 million TEUs (-12.9%). In the rolling stock, on the other hand, traffic grew by +5.7% at 57.7 million tonnes. Bulk volumes were stable, amounting to €127.7 million tonnes (+0.1%), while dry bulk decreased by -16.2% to 47.3 million tonnes.

Last year, the largest volume of freight traffic was has been handled by the Haropa port system (ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris) with 80.8 million tonnes (-4.4%) followed by ports of Marseille with 71.9 million tonnes (-7.6%), Dunkirk with 43.8 million tonnes (-10.5%), Calais with 41.1 million tonnes tonnes (+10.7%), Nantes-Saint Nazaire with 28.3 million tonnes tonnes (-4.6%), La Rochelle with 8.5 million tonnes (-10.9%) and Bordeaux with 6.2 million tonnes (-5.3%).

In the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, French ports handled 71.4 million tonnes of cargo, with a decline in -1.3% compared to the same period of the previous year, of which 11.2 million tonnes of containerised cargo (-6.4%) with a container handling of almost 1.2 million TEUs (-10.2%), 14.6 million tonnes of rolling stock (+8.9%), 11.7 million tonnes of dry bulk (-14.2%) and 32.8 million tonnes of liquid bulk (+2.2%). The most significant quarterly traffic volumes were handled by the Haropa port system with 20.5 million tons (+3.9%) followed by the ports of Marseille with 18.8 million tonnes (-2.7%), Dunkirk with 11.2 million tonnes (-8.6%), Calais with 10.4 million tonnes (+10.7%), Nantes-Saint Nazaire with 6.9 million tonnes (-9.8%), Rochelle with 2.1 million tons (-10.8%) and Bordeaux with 1.4 million tonnes (-9.8%).