Northern Ireland Ports Traffic 2016

The Department for Transport (DfT) collects and publishes statistics about passenger and freight traffic through the ports of the UK.

Key points

• The total tonnage through Northern Ireland (NI) ports in 2016 was 26.6 million tonnes, compared to 25.3 million tonnes the previous year.  Total freight traffic through United Kingdom (UK) ports in 2016 was 484.0 million tonnes, compared to 496.7 million tonnes the previous year.
• Over the year in NI, the total tonnage of inward traffic increased to 16.5 million tonnes, and outward traffic increased to 10.1 million tonnes.  For the UK as a whole, the volume of inward traffic for 2016 decreased to 303.1 million tonnes and outward traffic decreased to 180.9 million tonnes.
• The majority of total NI traffic came through the Belfast Port (66%), while Warrenpoint accounted for the second highest level of total traffic (12%), followed by 10% through the Port of Larne.  The most popular UK port was Grimsby & Immingham, which handled 11% of total UK port traffic in 2016.
• A total of 458,664 non-freight vehicles passed through Northern Ireland ports in 2016.  This compared with a figure of 459,601 in 2015 – a decrease of 0.2%.  In total, 5.8 million non-freight vehicles passed through the UK in 2016 – a decrease of 0.2% from 2015.
• Full report

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