Maritime Statistics 2005
The Department for Transport has today published National Statistics on port traffic, and UK and world fleet statistics in Maritime Statistics 2005.
Port freight traffic in 2005
* Freight traffic at UK ports rose by 2 per cent in 2005 to 586
million tonnes (Mt) compared with the previous year.
* Inwards traffic rose by 12 Mt (an increase of 3 per cent) to 354 Mt and outwards traffic by 1 Mt to 231 Mt (less than one half per cent).
* Bulk traffic, in terms of tonnage, rose by 7 Mt, up 2 per cent, while container and roll on roll off (ro-ro) traffic increased by 5 Mt, up 3 per cent.
* Containers increased by 150 thousand units, up 3 per cent and road goods vehicles and unaccompanied trailers increased by 155 thousand units, up 2 per cent.
* Leading ports by tonnage in 2005 (2004 positions in brackets) were:
Grimsby & Immingham 60.7 Mt (1)
Tees & Hartlepool 55.8 Mt (2)
London 53.8 Mt (3)
Southampton 39.9 Mt (5)
Milford Haven 37.5 Mt (4)
* Dover, the leading ro-ro port, recorded 2 million road goods
vehicles and unaccompanied trailer unit movements, 3 per cent more than the previous year. Felixstowe, the leading container port, handled 1.7 million containers, one per cent more than last year.
Other port statistics in 2005
* International sea passenger journeys fell by 7 per cent to 24.7 million compared with the previous year.
* Accompanied passenger car traffic fell by 8 per cent to 6.3
million.
* The number of ship arrivals were down by 3 per cent to 146
thousand.
Merchant fleet statistics at end 2005
* The UK registered trading fleet increased by 11 ships during 2005
to 608, while tonnage increased from 10.5 million deadweight tonnes to 11.6 million deadweight tonnes, 10 per cent up on the previous year.
* The UK registered trading fleet included 129 tankers, 137 ro-ro
vessels, 144 container vessels and 38 passenger vessels. Container vessels accounted for half of all deadweight tonnage.
* The trading fleet of ships owned by UK companies increased to 17.1 million deadweight tonnes by the end of 2005, up 5 per cent on the previous year.
* Of the 688 trading vessels owned by UK companies, 169 were tankers, accounting for 36 per cent of the deadweight tonnage of UK owned
trading vessels. Of the other 519 vessels 137 were ro-ro vessels, 75
container ships and 49 passenger vessels.
* World tonnage of trading vessels increased by 3 per cent in 2005 to 956 million deadweight tonnes.