European Ports 2024: Antwerp Narrows Distance to Rotterdam, Piraeus Loses Ground

Rotterdam, Antwerp-Bruges and Hamburg have maintained their dominance in the European port rankings in 2024, despite severe geopolitical instability and security challenges.

The combined container throughput of the top three European Union (EU) ports increased by 4.4% in 2024, rebounding from a sharp 7% decline the previous year, according to Theo Notteboom, a member of PortEconomics, the organization responsible for compiling the rankings.

Among the leading ports, Belgium’s Antwerp-Bruges demonstrated the strongest performance, achieving an impressive 8.1% year-on-year growth—nearly three times the container volume increase of Rotterdam.

“As a result, the TEU gap between these Benelux ports has narrowed to a razor-thin margin,” noted Notteboom. The difference between Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges is now less than 300 TEUs, positioning the Belgian port as a serious challenger to the long-standing supremacy of the Dutch giant.

Conversely, Greece’s port of Piraeus suffered an 8% decline in TEU volumes, primarily due to the Red Sea crisis and disruptions in the Suez Canal transits, which significantly impacted shipping networks. “The Eastern Mediterranean became a maritime cul-de-sac due to the dramatic drop in Suez Canal transits,” observed Notteboom. This decline resulted in Piraeus losing two spots in the rankings. However, in reality, the Greek port has handled more containers than Algeciras, as the ranking analysis only accounts for COSCO-operated Piers II and III, excluding the Piraeus Port Authority’s container terminal.

Meanwhile, in the Western Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast, the ports of Sines, Barcelona, and Valencia recorded significant growth. Gioia Tauro, situated in the central Mediterranean, achieved a double-digit container volume increase, while Malta’s Marsaxlokk port experienced a 2% uptick.

Notteboom highlighted that container traffic at Spain’s transshipment hub of Algeciras stagnated, facing stiff competition from the rapidly expanding Tanger Med across the Strait of Gibraltar. Tanger Med handled 10.24 million TEUs in 2024, reflecting an impressive 18.8% year-on-year growth.

At the lower end of the rankings, Spain’s Las Palmas port fell outside the top 15 but is steadily closing in on France’s Marseille, reporting a total TEU throughput of 1.32 million TEUs in 2024.

Overall, the top 15 EU ports collectively handled 76.8 million TEUs in 2024, marking a 5.9% increase compared to the previous year.

“While 2023 saw moderate to sharp declines in container traffic across most ports, 2024 brought a strong recovery, with five of the top 15 ports achieving double-digit growth and another four recording increases between 5% and 10%,” concluded Notteboom.

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