News

North Sea Port cargo throughput remains stable in first half of the year

Published on Wed 16 Jul 2025

Over the first six months of this year, the companies based in North Sea Port recorded a volume of 33.2 million tons of seaborne cargo transhipment. Despite a small dip of 1.2%, dry and liquid bulk transhipment held up well. The decline is in the general cargo and roll-on/roll-off traffic.

Thanks to the diversification of activities and types of goods in our (bulk) port, cargo throughput remained more or less static during the first six months. In total, 0.4 million fewer tons (-1.2%) of maritime cargo was transhipped than in the same period in 2024. Remarkably, transhipment in the second quarter was exactly the same as in the first quarter of this year, at 15.6 million tons.

Britain and USA continue to grow, trade with Russia continues to fall

In terms of growth, Britain remains the port’s most important trading partner, as it was (for the first time) in 2024. Once again, we note that the impact of Brexit continues to fade. The United States occupies second place. With growth of 8%, there are – for now in these figures – no negative signs of the impact of a potential trade war between Europe and the USA. Due to increased EU sanctions, trade with Russia continued its steady decline during the first half of the year (-14%).

Dry bulk and liquid bulk keep pace

North Sea Port is a real bulk port. Dry bulk accounts for about half of seaborne transhipment, liquid bulk for a quarter. The throughput of both types of goods remained at the same level compared to the first half of last year: 17.9 million tons of dry bulk goods (such as iron ore, coal, sand and gravel), 7.5 million tons of liquid bulk goods (such as propane, naphtha).

Container throughput climbed to 98,000 TEU (+27,000 TEU, +38.3%). Expressed by weight, this amounts to 930,000 tons (+180,000 tons, +23.5%).

The small decline in cargo throughput can be traced to general cargo and RoRo. Transhipment of general cargo decreased to 5.0 million tons (-0.4 million tons, -7.5%) partly due to a shift towards more fruit being transported in containers instead of as general cargo (pallets).The transshipment of roll-on/roll-off (Ro/Ro) decreased to 1.9 million tons (-0.04 million tons, -1.9%).

Inland shipping declines

Inland waterway transhipment fell to 30.3 million tons in the first half of 2025. That is 1.9 million tons less (-5.9%) than the same period in 2024. Most of this decline is in dry bulk: less trade in sand and gravel, ores and minerals.