UK ports see slight drop in 2008 traffic

Sorry I wasn't home in time to catch all this story, if anybody would like to pay for me to access Lloyds list I could check the news anytime!! Mr Gledhill? Unite?

UK ports handled 562m tonnes of freight traffic in 2008, a 3% fall on 2007, while the UK registered trading fleet increased by 29 to 675 ships during 2008. Overall deadweight tonnage totalled 15m tonnes, a rise of 15% on the previous year. The data, published by the Department for Transport, give some sense of the cargo volume declines in the lat...

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Maritime statistics 2008
The report contains figures giving detailed information on ports traffic and also includes statistics on the UK and world fleet. The complete PDF is available from this page as well as Excel versions of the tables. The Excel files also include longer time series where these are available, details of unitised traffic by Port, and additional facilities for users to sort the port level data (Table 3.8) to their own requirements.

Port freight traffic in 2008

UK ports handled 562 million tonnes (Mt) of freight traffic in 2008, 19 million tonnes (3 per cent) less than in 2007, and 6 million tonnes (1 per cent) less than in 1998.

Compared with 2007, inward traffic fell by 11 Mt (3 per cent) to 346 Mt and outward traffic fell by 8 Mt (4 per cent) to 216 Mt. Over the ten years since 1998 inward traffic has increased by 13 per cent and outward traffic has decreased by 18 per cent.

Liquid bulk traffic accounted for 43 per cent of the total, dry bulks 23.5 per cent, container and roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) traffic 29 per cent and other cargo 4.5 per cent.

Liquid bulk traffic was 4 per cent lower than in 2007, and 16 per cent down on 1998. Dry bulk traffic was marginally lower than in 2007, but 12 per cent up on 1998. Container and ro-ro traffic was 3 per cent down on 2007, and 23 per cent up on 1998.

The leading ports by tonnage in 2008 were:

Grimsby & Immingham 65.3 Mt
London 53.0 Mt
Tees and Hartlepool 45.4 Mt
Southampton 41.0 Mt
Forth 39.1 Mt

(Dover, the leading ro-ro port, handled 2.3 million road goods vehicles and unaccompanied trailer units (3 per cent lower than in 2007). Felixstowe, the leading container port, handled 1.9 million containers (3.1 million TEU), a 6 per cent decrease on 2007.

Port traffic statistics are derived from quarterly returns by shipping lines and agents of traffic handled at UK major ports. Port authorities and other port undertakings also supply summary information on tonnage and units. Merchant fleet statistics are supplied by Lloyd’s Register-Fairplay, giving details of vessels of 100 gt and over, and are outside the scope of National Statistics.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/maritime/compendium/maritimestatistics2008