• Home
  • About
    • Members
    • Associate Members
    • Former members
  • Thematic Areas
    • Containers
    • Cruise
    • European Port Policy
    • Ports & COVID-19
  • PortStudies
  • Presentations
  • Noticeboard
  • Viewpoints
  • PortLibrary
  • PortReport
PortEconomics
  • October 3rd, 2025
PortEconomics
  • Home
  • About
    • Members
    • Associate Members
    • Former members
  • Thematic Areas
    • Containers
    • Cruise
    • European Port Policy
    • Ports & COVID-19
  • PortStudies
    Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey

    Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey

    Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents:  Kuwait Shuwaikh Port

    Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents: Kuwait Shuwaikh Port

    Digital technologies for efficient and resilient sea-land logistics

    Digital technologies for efficient and resilient sea-land logistics

    Stakeholders’ attitudes toward container terminal automation

    Stakeholders’ attitudes toward container terminal automation

    Toward green container liner shipping: joint optimization of heterogeneous fleet deployment, speed optimization, and fuel bunkering

    Toward green container liner shipping: joint optimization of heterogeneous fleet deployment, speed optimization, and fuel bunkering

  • Presentations
    Port reform: World Bank publishes the third edition of its port reform toolkit

    Port reform: World Bank publishes the third edition of its port reform toolkit

    When will we admit that maritime transport will not be decarbonised by 2050?

    When will we admit that maritime transport will not be decarbonised by 2050?

    Digital technologies for efficient and resilient sea-land logistics

    Digital technologies for efficient and resilient sea-land logistics

    The World Ports Tracker in TOC Europe

    The World Ports Tracker in TOC Europe

    Newly-upgraded IAPH World Ports Tracker identifies major sustainability and market trends

    Newly-upgraded IAPH World Ports Tracker identifies major sustainability and market trends

  • Noticeboard
    Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

    Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

    PhD posts in the area of ports and energy transition

    PhD posts in the area of ports and energy transition

    PortEconomics members among best-performing scholars globally

    PortEconomics members among best-performing scholars globally

    Accessibility or connectivity: why is it correct to say that in the Caribbean the main logistics problem is connectivity?

    Accessibility or connectivity: why is it correct to say that in the Caribbean the main logistics problem is connectivity?

    Cruise Port-City Compass

    Cruise Port-City Compass

  • Viewpoints
    Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

    Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

    Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines

    Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines

    In a tight spot: American ports in global supply chains

    In a tight spot: American ports in global supply chains

    Cruise industry in 2025 at a glance

    Cruise industry in 2025 at a glance

    The box that makes the world go around: container terminals and global trade

    The box that makes the world go around: container terminals and global trade

  • PortLibrary
  • PortReport
Strong growth in H1 2019 for top European container portsCategory

Strong growth in H1 2019 for top European container ports

September 5th, 2019 Category, Containers, European Port Policy, Featured, Presentations

READ ALSO

Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025
Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025
Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines
Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines
Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents:  Kuwait Shuwaikh Port
Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents: Kuwait Shuwaikh Port
Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025
Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

By Theo Notteboom

The table shows the top 15 container ports in the European Union in 2018 based on container throughput expressed in TEU and the year-on-year growth for H1 2019. No growth figures were available for Marsaxlokk and Gioia Tauro.

What do the figures reveal?

First, with an overall weighted average growth of 5.7% (4.5% unweighted), the top 15 ports are performing better than in 2018 (+4.2%), 2017 (+4.6%), 2016 (+2.1%) and 2015 (-1.6%).

Second, the top three ports recorded a weighted average growth of 6.3% in H1 2019 compared to 4.1% in 2018. While Rotterdam and Antwerp also saw healthy container volume increases in previous years, Hamburg succeeds in presenting strong growth figures for the first time in many years. Part of Hamburg’s growth comes from the arrival of new deepsea liner services at the expense of neighbouring Bremerhaven. Moreover, the ongoing deepening and widening of the Elbe river gives a positive signal to the container market. Hamburg’s growth has not stopped the rise of Gdansk. The Polish port is expected to pass the 2 million TEU mark this year.

Second, Piraeus continues its strong growth path of the past decade by recording an impressive 23.8% growth in H1 2019 compared to H1 2018. If this growth figure can be sustained throughout 2019, the Greek hub port will reach about 6 million TEU this year and climb to the fourth position in the European ranking. Note that Piraeus only handled 1.2 million TEU in 2010. Also Spanish ports Valencia, Algeciras and Barcelona remain on an upward growth curve. Barcelona was hit very hard in 2009 and had difficulties in regaining growth afterwards. However, the year 2017 brought a trend break in the Catalonian port and also last year the port recorded strong growth. Genoa presented impressive growth figures in 2017 (+14.1%), but Italy’s largest container port has difficulties to match the 2017 volume (-0.5% in 2018 and -1.7% in H1 2019).

Next article Polycentric port governance
Previous article PortGraphic: container hub port competition near the straits of Gibraltar is intensifying

Theo Notteboom

Dr. Theo Notteboom is co-founder and co-director of PortEconomics. He is a professor in port and maritime economics and management with about 25 years of experience in this area. His work is widely cited. He is a regular speaker at international conferences and a rapporteur/expert to leading organizations in the field. He is Chair Professor at Ghent University in Belgium. He is a visiting Research Professor at China Institute of FTZ Supply Chain of Shanghai Maritime University. He also is part-time Professor at University of Antwerp and the Antwerp Maritime Academy in Belgium. He previously held a full-time position as High-end Foreign Expert / Professor at Dalian Maritime University in China (2014-2016) and an MPA visiting professorship in port management at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He is immediate past President (2010-2014) and Council Member of International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME). Between October 2006 and October 2014 he was President of ITMMA of the University of Antwerp. Between 2009 and 2014 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Belgian Institute of Transport Organizers (BITO), an institute of the Belgian Federal Government.

Related Posts

Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025 Containers

Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines Containers

Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines

Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey European Port Policy

Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey

Weekly Timeline
Oct 2nd 12:27 PM
Thematic Area

Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

Sep 18th 3:40 PM
Thematic Area

Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines

Sep 12th 3:48 PM
Thematic Area

Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey

Aug 12th 2:18 PM
Thematic Area

Port reform: World Bank publishes the third edition of its port reform toolkit

Jul 21st 11:51 AM
Thematic Area

Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents: Kuwait Shuwaikh Port

Tweets by @PortEconomics
  • Containers
  • Cruise
  • EPP
  • Ports & COVID-19
  • Back to top
About PortEconomics

PortEconomics is a web-based initiative aiming to advance knowledge exchange on seaport studies. Established by maritime economists affiliated to academic institutions in Belgium, Greece and the Netherlands. It provides freely accessible research, education, information, and network-building material on critical issues of port economics, management and policies.

Additional Information
  • About
  • Login
  • Register
  • Edit Profile
  • Contact us
  • PortProfessionals
  • PortReport Series
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Cookie Policy
© PortEconomics 2025. All rights reserved.
Produced by PortEconomics
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}