Maritime Trade and Transport - HWWI

4. Maritime trade and port economics
4.1 The European shipping areas 23
Official EU statistics differentiate between four European sea areas: the Baltic Sea, North Sea,
Atlantic and Mediterranean regions, whereby the term “shipping area” does not refer to the
routes taken by the ships, but merely denotes a geographic delimitation. The four European
sea areas comprise 471 ports in all, each of which handles a total of more than 1 mn tons of
cargo annually, as well as numerous smaller ports. Fig. 19 shows the 10 largest ports in the
various shipping areas.
In 2004, 3.5 bn t of goods were handled at the 471 largest ports. This was 7.8% more than
in 2003 (see Fig. 18). In comparison with 1997, total cargo handled in the Mediterranean area
more than doubled up to the year 2004, and in the Baltic Sea area it had approximately doubled.
Total cargo handling in the North Sea area, at 79.1% during this period, grew much
more slowly than that in the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean areas. The differences in the increase
of port cargo handling in the different regions of the European shipping area are due,
in part, to differences in GDP between the EU countries during this period, which led to
dif ferent degrees of expansion in exports and imports. The high growth rate in cargo handling
in the Baltic Sea area was widely influenced by the very pronounced increase in income in
the Baltic nations during this period. Between 1997 and 2004, the GDP in Estonia grew by
30.4%, in Latvia by 54.9%, und in Lithuania by 47%, whereas the average growth of the
EU-15 during this period amounted to 17.5%.
The largest shares of total cargo handling in the four European shipping areas being considered
belonged in 2004 to the North Sea area (43%), followed by the Mediterranean (26%),
23 The analysis of EU shipping areas and port structures is based on data from Eurostat. The evaluations pertain to
the years 1997, 2002, 2003 and 2004, whereby data for the individual ports are available for periods of different
lengths. It should also be noted that the handling figures for the ports may include double countings, resulting
from transshipment. Transshipment is the transfer or reloading of goods or containers from one ship to another
ship within a port. Furthermore, the Eurostat handling figures for container traffic do not contain the container
tare weights. This means that the handling figures shown in the present study lie below those published by the
ports themselves or in other studies if these contain the container tare weights. The analyses mainly include the
Norwegian ports that do not belong to the EU.
Total cargo handling** by shipping area, in 1,000 t
Growth Growth Growth
1997 2002 2003 2004 1997–2004 2002–2003 2003–2004
North Sea 847,674 1,430,107 1,445,030 1,518,575 79.1 1.0 5.1
Mediterranean 448,893 850,343 916,383 932,816 107.8 7.7 1.8
Atlantic n.a.* 603,940 620,674 655,705 n.a. 2.7 5.6
Baltic Sea 208,041 314,736 284,049 413,103 98.6 -9.7 45.4
EU Total n.a. 3,199,126 3,266,136 3,520,199 n.a. 2.1 7.8
* n.a.: not available
** Handling without container tare weight
Fig. 18
36 Berenberg Bank · HWWI: Strategy 2030 · No. 4
Source: Eurostat (2006).