In 2021, 136 billion tonne-kilometres (tkm) were performed by inland waterway freight transport in the EU. Four types of goods accounted for 87 billion tkm (64% of the total tkm performed on the EU’s inland waterways). 

Source dataset: iww_go_atygo

These four types of goods were: 

• mining and quarrying products other than coal, lignite, crude petroleum and natural gas, mainly metal ores or stone, sand, gravel and similar (32 billion tkm, or 24% of all tkm performed on the EU’s inland waterways in 2021);
• coke and refined petroleum products, mainly liquid refined petroleum products (21 billion tkm, or 15%);
• products of agriculture, forestry and fishing, mainly cereals (18 billion tkm, or 13%);
• and chemicals, mainly nitrogen compounds and fertilisers as well as basic organic or mineral chemicals (16 billion tkm, or 12%).

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