According to the latest figures by Eurostat, the Dutch port of Rotterdam has once again handled the largest amount of goods in Europe during 2012.
While it once held the title of the world's busiest port, before the emergence of Singapore and Shanghai, Rotterdam did handle a massive 396 million tonnes of goods in 2012, making it Europe's busiest by quite some distance.
Antwerp port in Belgium was the second busiest, handling 164.5 million tonnes. Hamburg was the third busiest with 114 million tonnes, while Marseilles was fourth busiest with 82 million tonnes. The Netherlands has remained the largest maritime freight transport country in Europe since 2010.
At 543 million tonnes in total, the volume of goods handled in Dutch ports in 2012 represented nearly 15% of the entire EU.
A report in the Irish Independent showed that Holland was follow by the UK and Italy in terms of their market share in the EU, with 13.4% and 12.8% respectively.
Spain remained the fourth largest and France the fifth largest EU maritime freight transport countries in 2012.
Overall, goods being transported into the EU fell by 2.3% to 3.7 billion tonnes, while newspaper Dalje reported that Croatia recorded the largest decrease in goods handled in EU maritime ports. Croatia recorded a 13.2% decrease in cargo turnover to 19 million tonnes in 2012, a 10.1% year-on-year decline from 2011.
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
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