Last year, Germany's inland waterways were 171.7 million tonnes of goods were transported, a volume that represents a decrease of -5.9% over 2022 and the new all-time low since German reunification in 1990, the year in which the which the 2023 figure shows a decrease of -25.9% as well as a reduction of -16.3% compared to the year 2019 before the crisis of Covid-19.

Today, the German Federal Statistical Office announced that last year the largest volumes of goods transported on domestic inland waterways consisted of mineral oils (27.9 million tonnes), stones and earth (21.6 million tonnes) tonnes), iron ore (20.4 million tonnes) and coal (18.5 million tonnes), accounting for a total of 51% of the total volume transported. Most of the major Freight volumes recorded a decline, the most significant of which is coal (-27.9%), while Mineral oils marked an increase of +3.1% compared to 2022.

In 2023, the total national traffic amounted to 42.5 million tonnes (-4.8%), while the export sector totalled 119.2 million tonnes (-7.3%), of which 42.0 million tonnes tonnes of export (-4.0%) and 77.3 million tonnes imports (-9.0%). Transit traffic has 10.0 million tonnes (+8.5%).