A cargo ship coming into a port.

Today, Eurostat launched a new webpage on maritime vessel traffic as part of our experimental statistics section. 

Statistics on the EU’s port activity and maritime vessel traffic help monitor economic activity and progress in the EU's sustainable and smart mobility strategy, including the use of alternative environment-friendly modes of transport. Our new experimental statistics on the number of maritime vessels entering the EU ports (port calls) will be more timely due to the innovative methods used and it will help in monitoring these changes. 

The new data sources used, like the automatic identification system (AIS) and administrative data from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), will allow in the coming months for early estimates within weeks of the reference period, without adding reporting burden. This method was tested for a period of five years (2015-2019) and the results are published today. In the future, Eurostat plans to further test and regularly update the port call estimates for the most recent quarter.