he Department for Transport has today published National Statistics on UK port traffic.
This report is the second in the Focus on Ports series. It gives comprehensive statistical information about commercially active UK ports, including trends in traffic since the 1960s for unitised cargo types such as containers, road goods vehicles and trailers, and by broad commodity groups such as crude oil and oil products, ores, coal and general cargo. It gives information about individual ports around the coast including details about ownership, type of operation carried out, and the sorts of traffic handled. The report also includes information on UK port employment and accident rates. The report as a whole comprises information which is already publicly available.
There are more than 650 ports in the UK for which statutory harbour authority powers have been granted, of which around 120 are commercially active. They range from ports such as the Port of London, which extends 95 miles from Teddington to the North Sea, to small harbour trusts responsible for quays, piers and other facilities which are only of local significance.
Around 95 per cent by volume and 75 per cent by value of the UK's international trade is transported by sea. In 2004 total UK imports across all transport modes were valued at £249 billion and exports at £191 billion, which indicates that approximately £330 billion of the UK's international trade was moved through its seaports.
The UK ports industry is the largest in Europe in terms of freight tonnage, handling a total of 573 million tonnes of foreign and domestic traffic in 2004. Each year around 50 million international and domestic passenger journeys are made through UK ports. In 2004 there were 27 million international ferry and cruise passenger journeys to and from the UK, a further four million domestic passengers on sea crossings and 19 million on inter-island services such as the Isle of Wight and Scottish Islands.
Annual tonnage handled by UK ports grew steadily between 1980 and 2000 at around 1.3 per cent per year. Traffic levels declined subsequently during the period 2000 to 2003 by one per cent annually but rose again by 3 per cent in 2004. Figure 1, available on the right, shows overall traffic growth in terms of imports, exports and domestic traffic.
Growth in imports has been much stronger than exports over the last twenty years, reflecting the changing structure of the economy from manufacturing to service industries. Domestic traffic has declined over the same period.
Growth in traffic has been particularly strong in two key sectors, container and roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) traffic, which have averaged growths of 5 per cent and 3.5 per cent per year respectively over the last decade.
Much of the UK's total tonnage is concentrated in a relatively small number of ports - the top fifteen ports account for almost 80 per cent of the UK's total port traffic. Grimsby & Immingham is the largest port in the UK and also the sixth largest port in Northern Europe. Tees & Hartlepool is the second largest port in the UK (seventh in Northern Europe), and London is the third largest port in the UK (eighth in Northern Europe). Almost a third of UK tonnage and three quarters of container units go through South East ports. Around 74,000 employees are directly employed on port related activities in the UK. More details about port employment in the UK are given in a report published by the Department 1 in November 2005.
1 Transport Statistics Bulletin SB(05)32: Port Employment and Accident Rates, DfT, 2005.
This report is the second in the Focus on Ports series. It gives comprehensive statistical information about commercially active UK ports, including trends in traffic since the 1960s for unitised cargo types such as containers, road goods vehicles and trailers, and by broad commodity groups such as crude oil and oil products, ores, coal and general cargo. It gives information about individual ports around the coast including details about ownership, type of operation carried out, and the sorts of traffic handled. The report also includes information on UK port employment and accident rates. The report as a whole comprises information which is already publicly available.
There are more than 650 ports in the UK for which statutory harbour authority powers have been granted, of which around 120 are commercially active. They range from ports such as the Port of London, which extends 95 miles from Teddington to the North Sea, to small harbour trusts responsible for quays, piers and other facilities which are only of local significance.
Around 95 per cent by volume and 75 per cent by value of the UK's international trade is transported by sea. In 2004 total UK imports across all transport modes were valued at £249 billion and exports at £191 billion, which indicates that approximately £330 billion of the UK's international trade was moved through its seaports.
The UK ports industry is the largest in Europe in terms of freight tonnage, handling a total of 573 million tonnes of foreign and domestic traffic in 2004. Each year around 50 million international and domestic passenger journeys are made through UK ports. In 2004 there were 27 million international ferry and cruise passenger journeys to and from the UK, a further four million domestic passengers on sea crossings and 19 million on inter-island services such as the Isle of Wight and Scottish Islands.
Annual tonnage handled by UK ports grew steadily between 1980 and 2000 at around 1.3 per cent per year. Traffic levels declined subsequently during the period 2000 to 2003 by one per cent annually but rose again by 3 per cent in 2004. Figure 1, available on the right, shows overall traffic growth in terms of imports, exports and domestic traffic.
Growth in imports has been much stronger than exports over the last twenty years, reflecting the changing structure of the economy from manufacturing to service industries. Domestic traffic has declined over the same period.
Growth in traffic has been particularly strong in two key sectors, container and roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) traffic, which have averaged growths of 5 per cent and 3.5 per cent per year respectively over the last decade.
Much of the UK's total tonnage is concentrated in a relatively small number of ports - the top fifteen ports account for almost 80 per cent of the UK's total port traffic. Grimsby & Immingham is the largest port in the UK and also the sixth largest port in Northern Europe. Tees & Hartlepool is the second largest port in the UK (seventh in Northern Europe), and London is the third largest port in the UK (eighth in Northern Europe). Almost a third of UK tonnage and three quarters of container units go through South East ports. Around 74,000 employees are directly employed on port related activities in the UK. More details about port employment in the UK are given in a report published by the Department 1 in November 2005.
1 Transport Statistics Bulletin SB(05)32: Port Employment and Accident Rates, DfT, 2005.
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