Eurostats
Short Sea Shipping (SSS) is a major alternative to road for the transport of goods in Europe, together with rail, inland waterways and pipelines. In 2007 freight SSS totalled around 1.9 billion tonnes, some 61% of total EU-27 maritime goods transport.
The United Kingdom and Italy, with 366 and 325 million tonnes respectively, contributed most heavily to the total. The share of SSS in otal maritime transport varied widely from one country to another. The majority of SSS reported by the EU-27 orts concerned partner ports situated in the Mediterranean (28%) and the North Sea (27%). Liquid bulk (including liquefied gas, crude oil and oil products), with almost half the total tonnage, was the largest cargo type. It ccounted for about 60% of total SSS cargo in French and Dutch ports.
While Rotterdam remained the largest EU-27 port in 2007 in terms of total SSS, it was overtaken by Antwerp in 2007 for containers. For Roll-on/Roll-off transport, Dover and Calais remained the top two SSS ports reflecting their high specialization in this activity. SSS of goods in containers continued to increase at a substantial rate: an 8.2% annual average increase for EU-15 between 2000 and 2007.