Last year on rivers and inland waterways in the Germany, 173.8 million tonnes of with an increase of +1.2% compared to 171.7 million tons in 2023. The 2024 river traffic figure - render known today by the German Federal Statistical Office Destatis - is the second lowest recorded from German reunification took place in 1990, the year in which the traffic in 2024 recorded a decrease of -25.0% as well as a drop of -15.3% compared to pre-Covid traffic in 2019.

Among the main types of goods transported in 2024 on the German rivers account for petroleum products with 28.6 million tons (+2.6% on 2023), iron ore with 20.3 million tons of tons (-0.9%), soil and stones with 20.1 million tons (-6.6%) and coal with 15.2 million tons (-17.8%). These categories of goods together account for almost half (48.4%) of the volume transported.

If container traffic continues to account for about 10% of the total, having been 9.6% in 2024, dry bulk and liquids were confirmed as the leading types respectively with 54.0% and 28.7% of total traffic.

Last year, traffic growth was generated mainly due to the +13.2% increase in goods in transit that amounted to 11.3 million tonnes and the increase in +2.8% in export traffic totalling 43.2 million of tons. Domestic traffic, with 42.8 million tons, recorded a slight increase of +0.7% while the import traffic, with 76.6 million tonnes, is decreased by -0.9%.

In 2024 more than half of the total volume of goods (56.0%) was transported by vessels and almost a third (31.3%) from German-flagged boats.