Inland shipping is back
While its share of overall freight traffic at 6% is small, Inland shipping is highly significant in regions with navigable waterways, reaching up to 44% of the total transport share in the catchment areas of major seaports.

Each year, waterways carry over 485 million tonnes in the EU, which represents a freight flow of 125 billion tonne-kilometers in 2005. Inland shipping is the largest carrier of building materials in Europe with a share of 39% and is an important carrier of cereals, agricultural products, solid fuels and ores. 80% of all transported hazardous goods such as solid fuels, petroleum products and basic chemicals are shipped by inland waterways.

Strong in new markets
Steady growth in inland shipping includes annual 2-digit growth in container and general cargo freight.  High quality service and dynamism is behind significant increases in short-distance freight movements for fast-moving consumer goods. Niche markets have also been developed for waste and recycling as well as for vehicles and abnormal loads.

While the Western European waterways carry the majority of cargo and traffic continues to grow, Eastern European waterways have substantial growth potential once infrastructure bottlenecks are cleared, and this will pave the way for significant growth in trade between East and West.