Europe's busiest ports ranked: Which cities lead in volume of goods transported?

Maritime transport plays a key role in moving goods.

Globally, around 13 billion tonnes of traded goods were transported by sea in 2024. In the EU, ports handled around 3.4 billion tonnes of goods. This corresponds to 26% of the global total.

Almost 90% of the EU's external freight trade is also carried by sea according to the EU Blue Economy Observatory.

So, which are the busiest ports in the EU and which countries handle the most goods?

Shipping mainly consists of two types: short sea shipping and deep sea shipping. Short sea shipping refers to transporting goods over relatively short distances by sea whereas deep sea shipping covers longer, intercontinental routes across oceans.

For the EU, short sea shipping does not only cover maritime transport within the bloc. It also includes candidate countries, Iceland, Norway, the Baltic Sea area, the Mediterranean Sea area and the Black Sea area.

Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges are the EU's busiest ports

As of 2024, two EU cities are by far the busiest ports when measured by total sea shipping according to Eurostat. Rotterdam in the Netherlands is the busiest port, with 397.3 million tonnes of goods transported to and from the port.

Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium follows Rotterdam, with 243.7 million tonnes of goods handled.

Hamburg ranks as the third-busiest port, but its volume is considerably lower than the top two. The German port handled 97 million tonnes of goods.

After the top two ports, the total weight of goods transported to and from ports falls gradually, and the differences between cities are relatively small.

Spain's Algeciras is the fourth-busiest port, with 81.5 million tonnes. Amsterdam, another Dutch port, completes the top five at 78.8 million tonnes of goods transported.

France's busiest port ranks sixth in the EU. HAROPA (Le Havre and Rouen) handled 76.6 million tonnes of goods in 2024. The Polish port of Gdansk follows closely at 71 million tonnes.

Another French port, Marseille, is also among the top 10 at 66 million tonnes.

Valencia is another busy port at 64.5 million tonnes.

One port from Romania, Constanta, is also in the top 10. The port handled 57.6 million tonnes of goods.

Among the ports ranked 11th to 20th, the gross weight of goods transported by sea ranges from 36.8 million tonnes in Dunkerque, France, to 55.5 million tonnes in the Spanish port of Barcelona.

The busiest Italian port is Trieste, at 53.5 million tonnes, followed by Genova at 47.4 million tonnes.

Sines in Portugal is also among the top 20 busiest EU ports at 44.1 million tonnes. Greece's Piraeus follows at 43.7 million tonnes.