Last year the German ports have enlivened 273,9 million tons of goods, with an increment - it has announced today the federal office of statistics of Germany - pairs to +2.3% on 2023. The only goods to the landing is piled to 166,5 million tons (+2.9%) and those to the boarding to 107,4 million tons (+1.3%). The overall growth of traffic was generated in the second half of the year: after a first semester in which the goods were stable and pairs to 136,3 million tons, in the second semester of 2024 the traffic has gone up of +4.6% attesting itself to 137,6 million tons regarding 131,6 million tons in the second half of the year precedence.

The rise of the total volumes of loads enlivened in 2024 follows two years in which the traffic had recorded a bending being in 2022 and in 2023 result pairs respective to 279,2 million and 267,8 million tons, with decreases of -3,2% and -4,1% on the previous years. The German statistical office has specified that, however, the traffic enlivened in 2024 is however remained of -6,7% below the level of 293,5 million tons of 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year the German port with the highest traffic was once again Hamburg with a traffic of 97.0 million tons (- 2.6%), followed by Bremerhaven (42.5 million tons, +8.6%), Wilhelmshaven (34.5 million tons, +15.7%) and Rostock (23.2 million tons, -2,8%).

As in 2023, even in 2024 the most important partner country in the German maritime trade were the United States with a traffic of 29,8 million tons, with a significant increase of +6,7% regarding the previous year. More than two-fifth of the goods enlivened with the USA (13.7 million tonnes) were fossil fuels. In the ranking of the most important trading partners follow Norway (25.8 million tons, +2.6%), Sweden (23.8 million tons, +3.3%) and China (19.1 million tons, -4,9%).

In 2024 the German marine ports have received from abroad 40,1 million tons of coal, crude oil and natural gas, +5.6% more than 2023. The statistical office has remembered that the marine trade of fossil fuels had already increased significantly in 2023 (+5.3% regarding 2022); However, in 2024 different developments have been recorded in relation to different energy sources: the traffic of coal is again diminished of the -8,0% regarding the previous year attesting itself to 6,7 million tons, while the traffic of crude oil is increased of +9.7% totaling 28,5 million tons and the influx of natural gas (mainly liquefied natural gas), that it was increased from 317 thousand tons in 2022 to 4,8 million tons in 2023 +4, following the energy crisis followed to the attack of the Ukraine In 2024 the most important natural gas supplier were the United States with 4.3 million tons, followed by Norway (294 thousand tons) and Angola (137 thousand tons). The main suppliers of crude oil were Norway (7.7 million tonnes), the United States (7.4 million tonnes) and the United Kingdom (4.6 million tonnes).

Last year the only container traffic in the German ports has been pairs to 13,3 million teu (+4.9% on 2023), against a pre-Covid level of 15,0 million teu in 2019. In 2024, almost a fifth of the German container traffic (2,6 million teu, +0.8%) was exchanged with China, followed by the United States with little less than a tenth of the total (1,3 million teu, -3,0%). The containerized traffic with the partner countries of the European Union (3,6 million teu), instead, has grown significantly of +17.7% regarding 2023 (3,1 million teu) and now represents more than a quarter of the container traffic of the German ports.