Waterborne freight in the United Kingdom: 2006

Waterborne Freight In The United Kingdom 2006 - National Statistics on freight traffic carried on UK inland waters, around the UK coast, to and from UK offshore installations and sea dredging.

The report shows that:

• Traffic on UK domestic waters accounted for 5 per cent (126 million tonnes) of all goods lifted in the UK, and 21 per cent (52 billion tonne-kilometres) of all goods moved. 
• Goods lifted on domestic waters fell 5 per cent compared with 2005 and goods moved by 15 per cent. This was largely due to a decrease in oil landed from North Sea oil fields and reduced coastwise transport of oil.  
• Over the decade to 2006, goods lifted on UK waters has fallen by 11 per cent and goods moved by 6 per cent, but there have been fluctuations during the period.
• About three quarters of goods moved is accounted for by crude petroleum and petroleum products.
• Of the total goods moved on UK domestic waters; 62 per cent was traffic around the coast; 35 per cent was one-port traffic (to or from offshore installations, or dredged materials); 3 per cent was inland waters traffic (including both non-seagoing traffic and seagoing traffic crossing into inland waters).     
• Goods moved on inland waters rose by 3 per cent compared with 2005, while coastwise and one-port traffic fell by 18 per cent and 11 per cent respectively. 
• The Thames was the busiest of the major inland waterways, with 0.76 billion tonne-kilometres of goods moved (45 per cent of inland waters total, and 1.5 per cent of all waterborne traffic).  Traffic on The Humber totalled 0.22 billion tonne-kilometres and The Forth 0.18 billion tonne-kilometres.

Notes

1. This is the latest in an annual series of reports.

2. Waterborne Freight in the United Kingdom 2006 is available free of charge from:

Department for Transport
Maritime Statistics Branch
Zone 2/29 Great Minster House
76 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DR
Tel: 020 7944 3087

3. The next edition of Waterborne Freight in the United Kingdom will be published in Autumn 2008. A related Benchmark Report providing a summary of inland waterway track, wharfs and vessels in Great Britain will be published early in 2008, updating the 2002 edition published in 2003.

4. Goods moved are measured in terms of tonne-kilometres, defined as tonnage lifted multiplied by distance travelled.

Publication details

Published on 15 November 2007 by Transport Statistics

Email: maritime.stats@dft.gov.uk for queries concerning this publication.

For information about release of this product see National Statistics Online.