In the first quarter of this year, the ports of the European Union handled 809.1 million tons of goods, with a decrease of -3.2% over the same period of 2023. Eurostat has made I note that in the first three months of 2024 it was the containerized traffic alone, which amounted to 190.9 million of tons (+5.2%). Rolling stock traffic, with 99.1 million tons, recorded a decrease of -8.4%. Even more accentuated the reduction in the volumes of dry bulk that were equal to 167.7 million tonnes and a decrease were liquid bulk cargo with 309.2 million tons (-2.7%). The other goods, with 42.2 million tonnes, marked a contraction of -1.6%.

Overall, in the first quarter of 2024, goods at the landings in EU ports totalled 494.2 million tonnes (-5.0%) and those on board 314.9 million tonnes (-0,2%).

With regard to containerized traffic, among the main container ports in the Union to show a decline was the only Greek port of Piraeus with a traffic of 1.02 million TEUs (-9,3%). Container volumes in other airports are increasing containers starting from Rotterdam with 3.18 million TEUs (+1.1%) followed by Antwerp-Bruges with 3.04 million TEUs (+6.5%), Hamburg with 1.92 million TEUs (+2.5%), Valencia with 1.24 million TEUs (+12.2%), Algeciras with 1.17 million TEUs (+4.8%), Bremerhaven with 1.12 million TEUs (+13.5%) and Gioia Tauro with 829 thousand TEUs (+3.8%).

Among the EU's leading maritime nations by volume of Total traffic, the ranking of the first three months of 2024 sees the Netherlands in first place with 134.5 million tons of goods passed through national seaports (-3.5%) followed by Spain with 118.7 million tons (+1.2%), Italy with 104.2 million tons million tonnes (-16.8%), Belgium with 70.3 million tonnes tonnes (+0.4%), France with 67.7 million tonnes (+8.2%) and Germany with 66.8 million tons (-1.0%).

At this point, we imagine, several Italian readers will have jumped on the chair reading about the quarterly decline of -16.8% allocated to national ports, this in the face of a reduction in reported by various institutional sources Italian such as that of about -5% that can be deduced from the publications of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Ten years ago some representatives of the Italian port system had protested over the data on traffic handled by national airports released by the statistical institute of the European Union, considering them incorrect or at least not complete ( of the 18th, 19 and 19 March 2014). Since then, time seems to have passed in vain, given that Eurostat is not transposing the data in time or appropriately statistics that the European Institute asks to receive within eight months from the period covered by the statistical survey, data that, with regard to Italy, Eurostat specifies that the by the Italian Institute of Statistics Istat and integrated with collected by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and port authorities. Data from from Italy, which the European institute specifies to have included in the its own database with the last update concluded on 20 September.

Yet in the data released by Eurostat something does not add up. Something It doesn't add up, it seems to understand, not because the European Institute did not receive the data in time or had figures Wrong. Something does not add up, it seems, in the way Eurostat treats data. For example: the total annual figure of goods handled from the main ports of a nation presented by Eurostat not corresponds to the annual figure if the latter is the sum of the totals of the four quarterly periods of the year released by the Eurostat itself.

Referring to the data released by Eurostat and referring to Italy, examining the annual traffic data in the main ports since 2005 which are disseminated by the European Institute, calculated in millions of tons of goods handled, between 2005 and 2021 the annual figure proposed by Eurostat is higher than the annual one calculated by adding the quarterly data released by the same European institute. In the period 2005-2021, the annual average is of 488.8 million tons handled by Italian ports compared to an annual average of 478.0 million tonnes calculated by adding the individual quarterly data. The average difference is of 10.8 million tons per year.

By way of example, the annual figure for 2006 is 520.2 million tonnes, while the annual 2006 budget for 2006 was given by the The sum of the four quarters is 506.0 million tonnes, with a waste of 14.2 million tons. The annual figure for 2020 is 469.6 million tonnes and the of 2020 calculated by adding the four quarters is 459.8 million tonnes, with a difference of 9.8 million tonnes, Tons. On the other hand, the annual figure for 2022 (478.0 million tonnes) is lower than the annual figure for 2022 counted by adding the four quarters (499.2 million tons), with a waste of 21.1 million tons.

Since the annual figures released by Eurostat coincide with those released by Istat, there is the same gap between the data published by the Italian Institute of Statistics and the annual generated by the sum of the four quarters proposed by Eurostat for except for 2022, the year for which Istat indicates a volume of traffic of 509.4 million tonnes compared to 478.0 million tonnes tonnes per year reported by Eurostat and the 499.2 million tonnes tons per year, the result of the sum of the four quarters spread by the European institute itself.

It could, of course, be Italy that does not provide the data in time requested or to send them incomplete. And even at the national level the scenario is not entirely clear. The annual data released by Istat in recent years sometimes coincide with those released by the Association of Italian Ports (Assoporti) and this takes place in the period 2010-2015, while those presented by Assoporti are lower than those of Istat in the period 2018-2022 and are for the two-year period 2016-2017. These are scraps ranging from 5 million to over 31 million tons per year.

The annual traffic data of Italian ports released by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport coincide, generally, with those published by Istat. It's not like that but for the year 2022, for which Istat indicates a of 509.4 million tons (like Eurostat), Assoporti proposes a traffic of 490.1 million tons and MIT quantifies it in 478.0 million tonnes. The latter figure is presented by the Ministry in the latest "National Account of Infrastructure and Transport - Years 2022-2023" and the source is attributed to Istat.

What is certain is that in the last ten years, but also earlier, in Italy, the collection and dissemination of Official statistical data on the activity of national ports has not made progress, on the contrary - as noted by inforMARE which collects statistical information on the sector on a daily basis of transport from official sources around the world - not the timeliness in the collection and dissemination of statistical data on port activity Italian.

Drawing conclusions, it could be useful, indeed a duty, Renew the protest against the Institute of Statistics European if the accusation against him is well-founded, and above all press because any incorrect information are corrected. However, it could also be useful, indeed it is certainly, to put your own house in order and, above all, disseminate official data on activity more promptly of Italian ports that should be the basis of any planning and politics are to be undertaken.