Piraeus, Valencia and Malta are the fastest-growing container ports in Europe after the pre-crisis period since 2007. During the analyzing period, the largest ports in Europe together increased container turnover by 12.1%, the traffic through the three ports rose more than 50%. The three ports are largely focused on transshipment cargo flows. The total turnover of the 15 largest ports by the end of 2015 decreased by 1.6% yoy, which is one of the worst in the history of the European container market.

Antwerp, which turnover grew by 7.5% in 2015, clearly went ahead of its competitors in the north of Europe and ahead of Hamburg took second place in the ranking of the largest container ports in Europe. In the Mediterranean, the ports of Valencia, Marsaxlokk, Genoa and Barcelona had healthy annual growth in turnover.

Many ports in Northern Europe suffered weak or negative growth during the last year, affected by lower volumes of transshipment in the Baltic Sea, as a result of the economic crisis in Russia and reduction of handling most of the Baltic ports in Russia (St Petersburg: -28%), Poland (Gdynia -18%, Gdansk -10%), in the Baltic States (Klaipeda -13%, Riga -20% and and Tallinn -8%).

The first figures for 2016 do not promise the market recovery in the short term, which will further increase competition among European ports.