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.

Maritime transport Survey concerns the carriage of goods and passengers by sea-going vessels, on voyages undertaken wholly or partly at sea. The data collected from the National Institute of Statistics 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.

NACE Classification 50.1 Maritime transport of passengers and 50.2 Maritime Transport of goods

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.

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, D1 and F2.
Whole calendar years for datasets A3, B1 and E1.

National Level:

The mission of the National Statistical Institute is to serve the community through the production and communication of high quality statistical information, analysis and forecasts. These must be carried out in full autonomy and on the basis of rigorous ethical-professional principles and the most advanced scientific standards (as required by the Comstat Directive n.10 of 17 March 2010: Adoption of the Italian Code of Official Statistics).

Since 1989 Istat has played a role of orientation, coordination, technical assistance and training within the National Statistical System (Sistan). The system was established with the Legislative Decree 322/1989, as modified by the DPR n. 166/2010, to rationalize the production and dissemination of information and optimize resources for official statistics. The Institute is defined in Presidential Decree no. 166/2010 just mentioned, a public body with scientific, organizational, financial and accounting autonomy, which carries out its activity according to the European and international principles of scientific independence, impartiality, objectivity, reliability, quality and confidentiality of statistical information. With the entry into force of Legislative Decree no. 218/2016 Istat was also officially listed among the public research bodies (EPR). In this context, it is configured as a research organization aimed at the production of data and analysis, organized according to a defined production model. Mostly what to produce for the official statistics and the most relevant surveys of international and national interest (Maritime Transport included) is established by the European Statistical Program and the National Statistical Program (PSN), respectively adopted by acts of the Council and the European Parliament and of the President of the Republic; how to produce is instead established by the European Statistics Code of Practice and by the national Code of Quality in Official Statistics, with supervision respectively by Eurostat and the Commission for the Guarantee of Statistical Information (Cogis).

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:

• Several national legal acts guarantee the confidentiality of data requested for statistical purposes. In Italy, according to art. 9, paragraph 1 of the Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, statistical data cannot be disseminated but in aggregated form, in order to make it impossible to make any reference to identifiable individuals. They can only be used for statistical purposes.

  Official statistics must also safeguard the rights, basic freedoms, and dignity of respondents, in particular with regard to the right to confidentiality and personal identity. Istat assures the protection of personal data according to the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC) and italian Data Protection Code (Legislative Decree no. 196/2003) and Code of conduct and professional practice applying to the processing of personal data for statistical and scientific research purposes within the framework of the national statistical system.

  In order to make statistical secrecy and protection of personal data effective, Istat is currently taking appropriate organisational, logistical, methodological and statistical measures in accordance with internationally established standards.

  Moreover, Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, art. 6 and 6 bis provides that the exchange of personal data within the National Statistical System (Sistan) is possible if it is necessary to fulfil requirements provided by the National Statistical Programme or to allow the pursuit of institutional purposes.

  Finally, in implementation of art. 5-ter of the legislative decree 14 March 2013, no. 33, the new "Guidelines for the access for scientific purposes to the elementary data of the National Statistical System" establish the conditions under which the bodies and offices of the National Statistical System can allow researchers to access their own elementary data for scientific purposes.

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.

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 release calendar is publicly accessible on the website (https://www.istat.it/en/information-and-services/journalists/release-calendar) and the weekly update Calendario delle diffusioni e degli eventi as well (https://www.istat.it/it/informazioni-e-servizi/per-i-giornalisti/appuntamenti/calendario-diffusioni-ed-eventi).

Datasets A1, A2, C1 are transmitted to Eurostat quarterly.
These datasets and the remaining datasets are transmitted to Eurostat annually. 
In Italy only annual data are published annually.

Methodological notes are available in the online Statistics Explained articles on Maritime transport statistics and in the Reference Manual on Maritime Transport Statistics.

Since the 90s Istat adopted a systematic approach to ensure quality in both statistical information and service to the community. For this purpose, the Italian National Institute of Statistics has defined a quality policy providing itself with appropriate tools as well as management changes to carry it out.

Istat quality policy is aimed at the improvement of statistical outputs and processes through the development of appropriate methodologies and tools as well as an appropriate scientific and technical support, provided to the personnel directly involved in the production and dissemination of statistical information.

Istat quality policy is coherent with the European framework developed by Eurostat, taking up its main principles and definitions stated in the European Statistics Code of Practice and useful to ensure and strengthen the accountability and governance of the European Statistical System and of the National Statistical Systems.

For details: https://www.istat.it/en/organisation-and-activity/institutional-activities/quality-commitment

The main users of  Maritime Transport Statistics  are national (Istat included) and local authorities, public and private research institutes both national and international and trade associations in the transport, environment and energy sectors.

Not applicable for maritime transport data collection.

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).

Geographical comparability is obtained via the application of common concepts and validation rules. The harmonised interpretation of the methodology is enhanced by the organisation of regular meeting of the Working Group on Maritime Transport Statistics, where all reporting countries are represented.

In Italy sub-national comparability for regions with ports is guaranteed.

The quality checks include intra-dataset checks, inter-datasets checks, time series checks and mirror checks. These quality checks detect data that could possibly be in error. Some errors are corrected before publications. Other errors, which require further investigations, are corrected later.

Some possible explanations of mirror discrepancies have been identified so far:

1. A transport operation could start at the end of year N and could finish at the beginning of year N+1;

2. Change of ownership/registration of a ship (this concerns discrepancies related to the variable "nationality of registration of vessels");

3. The port of unloading may change during the course of a voyage if the cargo has been traded after the departure, or because of bad weather or congestion in the original unloading port (this is one of the arguments that lead to a "preference" for inwards declarations in case of discrepancies, when calculating "transport" aggregates for example);

4. Lack of harmonization in the preparation of the list of ports (non-exhaustiveness of the list and non-harmonized use of the concept of statistical port) - These problems have been identified and solutions found: these are under implementation and should improve the problem of mirror discrepancies in the medium-long term;

5. Heterogeneous interpretation of the classification by type of cargo (this concerns discrepancies related to the variable "type of cargo") - These problems have been identified and solutions found: these are under implementation and should improve the problem of mirror discrepancies in the medium-long term;

6. Excessive use of "unknown variables" in various classifications;

The cost of compiling maritime transport statistics is high because Italy has many main ports, volume of maritime transport and production practices. Also the burden of compiling maritime transport statistics is high because the data are compiled using administrative and other commercial documents and registers that exist independently from the statistical requirements of Directive 2009/42/EC.

Istat revision policy is reported at the following link:https://www.istat.it/en/economic-trends/revisions