Statistics Estonia

Enterprise and Agricultural Statistics Department

Address: Tatari 51, 10134, Tallinn

Maritime transport data refer to gross weight of goods (in tonnes), passenger movements (in number of passengers) as well as for vessel traffic (in number of vessels and in gross tonnage of vessels).

The following classifications are applicable:

Maritime Coastal area: the nomenclature is based on the Geonomenclature (the country nomenclature for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States, originally drawn up by the Council Regulation (EEC) N°1736/75) in force in the year to which the data refer (RAMON: https://showvoc.op.europa.eu/#/datasets/ESTAT_Geonomenclature_2021_%28GEONOM_2021%29/data).

Ports: the codes used are the official UN/LOCODEs, when they exist. If a port does not have an official UN/LOCODE a provisional (numeric) code is attributed to the port. As soon as an official UN/LOCODE is attributed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) to the port at the request of the competent national authority, the provisional (numeric) code is replaced by the final official one. In exceptional cases (see for example one-port transport or special aggregation for minor ports) permanent numeric codes are attributed to special locations or activities. The code list of UN/LOCODE is available by country through the following link: http://www.unece.org/cefact/locode/service/location.html. According to the relevant directive, Eurostat draws up a list of ports, coded and classified according to countries and maritime coastal areas. The list of ports is included in implementing legal acts and as such is published in the Official Journal of the European Union (the "official" list). The most recent list of ports published in the Official Journal is found in Commission Decision (EU) 2018/1007

Nationality of registration of vessels: the nomenclature used is the Geo-nomenclature (the country nomenclature for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States, originally drawn up by the Council Regulation (EEC) N°1736/75) in force in the year to which the data refer (RAMON: https://showvoc.op.europa.eu/#/datasets/ESTAT_Geonomenclature_2021_%28GEONOM_2021%29/data).

The type of ship classification is harmonised with an internationally agreed International Classification of Ship by Type (ICST).

The type of cargo classification, available in Directive 2009/42/EC, has been established in conformity with the United Nation ECE Recommendation N°21.

Standard goods classification for transport statistics (NST 2007) https://unstats.un.org/unsd/classifications/Family/Detail/1043

Maritime transport is the carriage of goods and passengers by sea-going vessels, on voyages undertaken wholly or partly at sea.

The data collected are port statistics: information on goods handled in ports, passengers embarked and disembarked and vessel traffic. Detailed information is collected on the type of cargo and passengers, geographical areas where the partner ports are located, type, size and nationality of ships used to carry out that transportation.

Detailed information is collected from main ports - at least those handling more than 1 million tonnes of goods annually or recording more than 200 000 passenger movements annually. 

Main concepts used in this domain are the following and for more information on the concepts and methodology, please consult the Reference Manual on Maritime Transport Statistics.

Port -A place having facilities for merchant ships to moor and to load and/or unload cargo or to disembark and/or embark passengers to or from vessels, usually directly to a pier.
Statistical Port -A statistical port consists of one or more ports, normally controlled by a single port authority, which is able to record ship, passenger and cargo movements.
Reporting Port-A statistical port for which statistics of inward and outward maritime transport flows are compiled.
Main port -A main port is a statistical port which has annual movements of no less than 200 000 passengers or recording more than one millions tonnes of cargo. For ports selected on the basis of only one of these cargo or passenger criteria, detailed statistics are required only for that transport.
Maritime coastal area (MCA) -A maritime coastal area is defined as a contiguous stretch of coastline, together with islands offshore. Within a country, an MCA is defined either in terms of one or more ranges of ports along its coastline, or in terms of the latitude and longitude of one or more sets of extremities of the coastal area. Riverbanks can be included. Normally the coastline of each country is allocated to a single maritime coastal area and the coastlines of more than one country may form a single maritime coastal area. There are some exceptions. For example, the USA is separated into a number of maritime coastal areas to cover its overall coastline. For some countries, two separate stretches of coastline may be counted as one maritime coastal area, as, for example, the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines of Mexico.
Carriage of goods and passengers by sea -The movement of goods and passengers using seagoing vessels, on voyage which are undertaken wholly or partly by sea. The scope of the Maritime Directive 2009/42/EC also includes goods:

1. Shipped to offshore installations;
2. Reclaimed from seabed and unloaded in ports.

Bunkers and stores supplied to vessels shall be excluded from the scope.

Seagoing vessel -Floating marine structure with one or more surface displacement hulls. In the context of the Directive, sea-going vessels are vessels other than those which navigate exclusively in inland waters or in waters within, or closely adjacent to, sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.
Nationality of registration of seagoing vessel (Flag state) -Every ship is entered in a registry (i.e. list) of ships. Registries are maintained by many countries, each having a set of rules regarding safety procedures, inspection schedules, manning numbers and nationalities for crew and officers, training requirements, etc. Ship-owners select which registry to use based on the balance between the relative cost implications of the rules of each registry and possible penalties from insurance assessments dependent on these rules.
Type of cargo- The type of cargo classification, set according to the UNECE - Codes for types of cargo, packages and packaging materials, Recommendation 21, Geneva, March 1986, describes how the goods are being transported in terms of the vessels being used and the port facilities required to handle them. It is therefore very different from the categories of goods classification.
Freight container-Special box to carry freight, strengthened and stackable and allowing horizontal or vertical transfers.

Swap bodies are excluded. Although without internal volume flats used in maritime transport should be considered to be a special type of container and therefore are included here. For a fuller description, reference should be made to ISO 668 and 1496.The related term "container cargo" refers to containers, with or without cargo, which are lifted on or off the vessels which carry them by sea.

Ro-Ro unit- This means wheeled equipment for carrying cargo, such as a truck, trailer or semi-trailer, which can be driven or towed onto a vessel. Port or ships' trailers are included in this definition. Classifications should follow United Nations ECE Recommendation No 21 'Codes for types of cargo, packages and packaging materials'. Live animals on the hoof are included. Vehicles being transported as cargo as opposed to a means of transport for freight are recorded in the separate headings of the Ro-Ro cargo classification, when they are rolled on or rolled off a vessel on their own wheels.
Ro-Ro cargo -This means goods, whether or not in containers, on Ro-Ro units, and Ro-Ro units, which are rolled on and off the vessels, which carry them by sea.
Gross weight of goods -The gross weight of each consignment is the weight of the actual goods together with the immediate packaging in which they are being transported from origin to destination, but excluding the tare weight of containers or Ro-Ro units (e.g. containers, swap bodies and pallets containing goods as well as road goods vehicles, wagons or barges carried on the vessel). This measure of quantity is different from that used in trade statistics, namely the net weight of goods and different from statistics collected on other transport modes where the tare weight is included. Where goods are transported in a road goods vehicle, in a container, or other intermodal transport unit, the gross weight of the goods does not include the tare weightof the transport unit.
Gross tonnage -This means the measure of the overall size of a ship determined in accordance with the provisions of the International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships, 1969.
Passenger -Any person who makes a sea journey on a merchant ship. Service staff assigned to merchant ships is not regarded as passengers. Non-fare paying crewmembers travelling but not assigned and infants in arms are excluded.
Cruise passenger -This means a sea passenger making a sea journey on a cruise ship. Passengers on day excursions are excluded.
Cruise ship -This means a passenger ship intended to provide passengers with a full tourist experience. All passengers have cabins. Facilities for entertainment aboard are included. Ships operating normal ferry services are excluded, even if some passengers treat the service as a cruise. In addition, cargo-carrying vessels able to carry a very limited number of passengers with their own cabins are also excluded. Ships intended solely for day excursions are also excluded.
Cruise passenger excursion -This means a short visit by a cruise passenger to a tourist attraction associated with a port while retaining a cabin on board.

The data used in the domain are collected at port level.

Detailed data are provided for ports handling more than one million tonnes of goods or recording more than 200 000 passenger movements annually (Main ports). The other ports are required to provide summary data. However, detailed data may be included also for minor ports on a voluntary basis.

Seaports located on the territory of Estonia.

Annual data of carriage of goods and passengers by sea has been reported starting from 2001, quarterly data from 2002.

Not applicable.

The units used depend on the variables collected within each data set and are: gross weight of goods expressed in thousands of tonnes; number of passengers in thousands, number of vessels.

 TEUs: Twenty feet equivalent units, expressed in units or in thousands depending on the table. TEU calculation coefficients:
• 20-ft freight units (1 TEU)
• 40-ft freight units (2 TEU)
• Freight units over 20-ft and under 40-ft in length (1.5 TEU)
• Freight units over 40-ft long (2.25 TEU).

Quarters for datasets A1, A2, C1, C2, D1 and F2.
Whole calendar years for datasets A3, B1 and E1.

National Level:

• Official Statistics Act. Passed 10.06.2010. RT I 2010, 41, 241. Entry into force 01.08.2010 (https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/ee/517122019002/consolide/current)

European Level:

• The statistics on maritime transport are collected within the framework of within Directive 2009/42/EC and Commission Decision 2008/861/EC, as amended by Commission Decision 2010/216/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 April 2010, by Regulation 1090/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 and by Commission Delegated Decision 2012/186/EU of 3 February 2012.
• The dissemination is based on the terms of Commission Decision 2001/423/EC on arrangements for publication or dissemination of the statistical data collected pursuant to Council Directive 95/64/EC on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea.

Not applicable.

National level:

•  Official Statistics Act. Passed 10.06.2010. RT I 2010, 41, 241. Entry into force 01.08.2010. The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 32, § 34, § 35, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act. (https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/ee/506012015002/consolide/current)

European level:

• (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

The data provided to Eurostat in the data sets contain confidential information.

Article 4 of Commission Decision 2001/423/EC mention that: "the highest level of detail in which data may be published or disseminated is the level of port to and from maritime coastal area. The Commission may however publish at more aggregate level if the quality and/or completeness of information are not appropriate in such detail."

The treatment of confidential data is regulated by the Procedure for Protection of Data Collected and Processed by Statistics Estonia: https://www.stat.ee/en/statistics-estonia/data-protection-privacy-policy.

The data provided to Eurostat may contain confidential information. Statistics Estonia has renewed the agreements with seaports in order to get their consent to provide Eurostat with the data specified in the legal acts.

Notifications about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on the website. Every year on 1 October, the release times of the statistical database, news releases, main indicators by IMF SDDS and publications for the following year are announced in the release calendar (in the case of publications – the release month).

https://www.stat.ee/en/calendar

All users have been granted equal access to official statistics: dissemination dates of official statistics are announced in advance and no user category (incl. Eurostat, state authorities and mass media) is provided access to official statistics before other users. Official statistics are first published in the statistical database. If there is also a news release, it is published simultaneously with data in the statistical database. Official statistics are available on the website at 8:00 a.m. on the date announced in the release calendar.

Quarterly maritime transport statistics are published within 4 months after the reference period.

Quarterly maritime transport statistics are published within 10 months after the reference period and annual maritime transport statistics within 16 months after the reference period at EU level.

News release was issued in March on last year's results up to 2020.

Irregular blog news will be published, no other publications will be published.

Data are published under the subject area “Economy / Transport” in the statistical database at https://andmed.stat.ee/et/stat.

The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 33, § 34, § 35, § 36, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act. Access to microdata and anonymisation of microdata are regulated by Statistics Estonia procedure for dissemination of confidential data for scientific purposes.

Statistical dashboards - The data are displayed as graphs and charts. It is possible to customise the dashboards to create overviews of indicators of interest, to download and share information in various formats. The data used are from the statistical database of Statistics Estonia and are updated automatically (https://juhtimislauad.stat.ee/dashboard/1).    

Dedicated Meta information (Definitions, comments, methods, quality) on Sea Transport Statistics is available at national level: https://www.stat.ee/en/find-statistics/methodology-and-quality/esms-metadata/22031 .

Dedicated Meta information (Definitions, comments, methods, quality) on Sea Transport Statistics is available at national level: https://www.stat.ee/en/find-statistics/methodology-and-quality

To assure the quality of processes and products, Statistics Estonia applies the EFQM Excellence Model, the European Statistics Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (ESS QAF). Statistics Estonia is also guided by the requirements in § 7. “Principles and quality criteria of producing official statistics” of the Official Statistics Act.

Statistics Estonia performs all statistical activities according to an international model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process; this information can take many forms, including feedback from users, process metadata, system metrics and suggestions from employees. This information is used to prepare the evaluation report, which outlines all the quality problems related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions.

Implementation and compliance with the SDMX standards: 

Data are transmitted to Eurostat in SDMX format.

SDMX standard is not used for data exchanges with data providers (ports).

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

Estonian Maritime Administration

We regularly collect feedback from users about the kind of information the society needs. The main users of statistics are public authorities, industry associations, research and educational institutions and local government associations.

Since 1996, Statistics Estonia has conducted reputation and user satisfaction surveys.

In compliance with the rules (regulations). The data collection on Maritime transport statistics follows the provisions of the Directive 2009/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea (Recast).

The type of survey and the data collection methods ensure sufficient coverage and timeliness. The processing with several checks as well as checks done before transmitting data to Eurostat provides a high accuracy of the data.

Not applicable for maritime transport data collection.

Data editing and coding errors, logical errors, which do not occur much. The main ones are coding errors.

Quarterly data should be transmitted by Member States to Eurostat within five months of the end of the period of observation; annual data within eight months. The Commission (Eurostat) shall disseminate appropriate statistical data with a periodicity comparable to that of the results transmitted (Directive 2009/42/EC).

All the statistics required by the provisions of the legal acts on maritime transport statistics are available one month before the deadline for the data provisions set up in the legal act.

Quarterly data should be transmitted by Member States to Eurostat within five months of the end of the period of observation; annual data within eight months.

The data are comparable to data of other European Union countries because common methodology has been used for transport statistics.

The data are comparable over time because common methodology has been used.

The detailed information on eventual breaks in the time series is provided in the Country Specific Notes (CSNs) available at Eurostat’s metadata page (in Annex part).

Comparisons with other transport statistics are only partially and to a limited extent possible with regard to freight transport and passenger transport, since data are currently not available or are not collected at the same level of detail and also different methods and underlying objectives.

The data are made internally coherent by using common methodology in data collection and the same rules of data aggregation.

The response burden is put on the ports, but is reduced to a minimum – it is possible to provide the data automatically using electronic data transmission tool (eStat) and are only contacted if errors cannot be solved by the NSI. As data is collected by individual port visits, the amount of data is large, so it is possible to upload data as a file for data transfer via eStat to Statistics Estonia.

Cost of statistical activity "Water transport" (includes monthly ports survey and survey of transport enterprises) 48 thousand euros (data for 2022)

Average time of filling in the reports, hours per report: quarterly questionnaire "Shpping traffic" 4.8  (data for 2021)

The data revision policy and notification of corrections are described in the dissemination policy of Statistics Estonia at Official Statistics Act https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/ee/506012015002/consolide/current .

The published data may be revised if the methodology is modified, errors are discovered, new or better data become available within a year from the end of the reference period.

SURVEY DATA: The population is 7 seaports and for national passenger transport 1 sea transport enterprise (national lines). Census has been used.

ADMINISTRATIVE DATA: EMDE (Estonian Maritime Documents Exchange) data of ship visits is disseminated, but not used for dataset F2.

Seaports are the source of the following information: Carriage of goods by vessels and Passenger transport by vessels

Carriage of goods by vessels – time of departure/arrival of the vessel; quarter; reporting port; direction; port of loading/unloading; maritime coastal area; type of cargo; group of goods; flag state; type of vessel; vessel size class; quantity of loaded/unloaded goods; quantity of transit goods; number of containers and roll-on/roll-off units: full and empty; number of containers and roll-on/roll-off units: empty; gross tonnage of vessel; IMO number of vessel
Passenger transport by vessels – time of departure/arrival of the vessel; quarter; reporting port; direction; port of embarking/disembarking; maritime  coastal area; flag state; type of vessel; vessel size class; number of outward/inward passengers; number of cruise passengers; number of cruise passengers starting/finishing their voyage; gross tonnage of vessel; IMO number of vessel

Sea transport enterprise data of national passenger transport by main national routes: Number of maritime transport journeys; Number of maritime transport passengers; Passenger turnover of maritime transport

All data are transmitted quarterly to CNA.

Information needed for the quarterly datasets A1, A2, C1, D1, F2 and for the annual datasets A3, B1 and E1 are collected quarterly. Annual data are summed up on the basis of quarterly data.

Data are collected and the submission of questionnaires is monitored through eSTAT (the web channel for electronic data submission). The questionnaires have been designed for independent completion in eSTAT and include instructions and controls. The questionnaires and information about data submission are available on Statistics Estonia’s website at https://saextwebtest.stat.ee/en/submit-data/about-data-submission . Data are collected with the official statistics quarterly questionnaires "Shipping traffic", "International passenger transport through ports", "Carriage of goods through ports" and "Seaborne transport".

Arithmetic and qualitative controls are used in the validation process, including comparison with the data of previous periods and other surveys.

There are main validation rules implemented into VAIS toolbox. After validating the data, necessary corrections are made manually or automatically. If necessary, the data respondents are involved into data correction process.

In the case of missing or unreliable data, estimate imputation based on established regulations will be used.

Variables and statistical units which were not collected but which are necessary for producing the output are calculated. New variables are calculated by applying arithmetic conversion to already existing variables. This may be done repeatedly, the derived variable may, in turn, be based on previously derived new variables.

Microdata are aggregated to the level necessary for analysis. This includes aggregating the data according to the classification, and calculating various statistical measures.

The collected data are converted into statistical output. This includes calculating additional indicators.

After various plausibility checks, the data received from the data respondents  are compiled into quarterly data following the structure of the data sets which are preset by legal acts for maritime transport statistica.

Not applicable for air transport data collection.

Not applicable.