In 2023, cargo traffic in Dutch ports is decreased by -7.6% compared to the previous year, amounting to 574 million tonnes, with unloaded goods alone which, with 396 million tonnes, million tonnes, fell by -8.6% while the reduction in the of goods shipped was -5.1% as they were 178 million tonnes. Today, the Institute of Statistics of the Netherlands has reported that last year all the types of cargo, in particular dry bulk imports which, at 109.1 million tonnes, marked a decline -17.1%, with coal recording the largest decline of -32% as imports fell (from 8.5 million tonnes in 2022 to 100 thousand tonnes in 2023), in particular from Ukraine. Exports of dry bulk also declined with 20.8 million tonnes (-1.0%) as well as Imports and exports of liquid bulk to 194.8 million tonnes (-3.5%) and 69.9 million tonnes, respectively tonnes (-5.4%).

Lower volumes were handled in Dutch ports in 2023 of containerised cargo, which totalled 136.3 million tonnes (-6.7%), of which 73.0 million tonnes (-4.6%) and 63.3 million tonnes million at embarkation (-8.8%). The total container traffic in 20' box terms decreased by -6.9%.

Overall cargo volumes also declined Ro-Ro with 25.4 million tonnes (-5.6%) and other miscellaneous goods with 18.3 million tonnes (-8.5%).