European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) Report - Impact of COVID-19 on shipping traffic

The COVID-19 outbreak is affecting the lives and work of people in the EU and all across the globe. Since the start of the COVID19 crisis, the Commission, the Member States and the shipping industry have been taking measures to ensure the continuity of operations and thus the security of supply. The situation is evolving day by day and the effects could be long-term. What shipping will look like post COVID-19 is unclear, however EMSA has the necessary data and tools to analyse the impact of the pandemic on certain shipping activities by analysing vessel traffic data and providing reliable figures to assist in the definition of the recovery policies and specific measures. These figures should assist all parties involved (EU, maritime administrations and shipping industry) in determining a recovery strategy to overcome the economic crisis that Europe is facing. The objective of this report is to provide figures on the impact of COVID-19 on shipping traffic; it is based on solid vessel movements statistics showing the port call trends without interpreting the statistical data. The report could not serve the purpose of an economic impact analysis since the trade volumes are not available in the EMSA systems. The report focuses mainly on EU ports and EU flagged ships, but there are also statistics about the shipping routes from Europe to China and from Europe to the US have been affected. The report is updated on a weekly basis and will be published every Friday.