Moving goods across Europe: Insights into the EU’s supply chains
Publication Date/Time
2026-09-29T11:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
How transport modes differ, where freight activity is concentrated and
what the EU trades with the rest of the world
How does the food on your table, the clothes in your wardrobe or the
phone in your pocket get to you? Every day, huge volumes of goods move
across Europe by road, rail, air, sea and inland waterways. Transport
is a vital part of the supply chains that connect producers, ports,
warehouses, businesses and consumers across the continent. 

Using Eurostat transport and trade data, this data story explores how
freight moves across the EU, where transport activity is concentrated
and what the EU trades with the rest of the world. 

 

_WHICH TRANSPORT MODES DOMINATE FREIGHT TRANSPORT ACROSS THE EU?_ 

Sea, road, rail, inland waterway and air transport all move freight
across the EU but their roles differ dramatically, both at the EU
level and from one EU Member State to another. 

FIGURE 1 compares freight transport performance in tonne-kilometres, a
measure that takes into account both the weight of the goods and the
distance they travel. In 2024, sea transport accounted for 67.0 % of
EU freight transport performance and road transport for 25.7 %.
Together, the two modes represented almost 93 % of the total. Rail
transport accounted for 5.4 %, inland waterway transport for 1.7 %
and air transport for just 0.2 % by this measure. 

Behind this EU-wide picture are striking national differences.
Maritime transport dominates in many coastal and island Member States,
including Greece, Cyprus and Portugal, while road transport is the
main mode in several landlocked and central European countries. Rail
transport also plays a much larger role in some Member States than its
EU-wide share suggests, exceeding 30 % in Lithuania and Austria,
while inland waterway transport is particularly important in
Romania. 

These differences between Member States are much larger than the
changes in the EU-wide transport mix over time. Between 2014 and 2024,
road transport was the only mode to gain share, increasing by
3.3 percentage points (pp), while sea transport remained dominant
but fell by 2.5 pp. Rail transport and inland waterway transport
declined by 0.3 and 0.5 pp, respectively, while air transport was
virtually unchanged. 

The contrast is clear: Member States rely on very different
combinations of transport modes, while the overall EU freight mix has
changed only gradually over the past decade. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/20260917_supply%20chains_1_transport%20mode.png]
FIGURE 1: FREIGHT TRANSPORT MIX IN THE EU AND ITS MEMBER STATES 

_Source_: Eurostat
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tran_hv_ms_frmod__custom_20286838/bookmark/table?lang=en&bookmarkId=16010552-c72d-427d-9a24-97f2e635cc23&c=1772119639000] /
European Data Portal
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/vrsqqnynmjgmc5pu2lc3lq?locale=en]. 

 

_WHERE IS FREIGHT ACTIVITY CONCENTRATED ACROSS THE EU?_ 

The EU-wide transport mix is only part of the picture. Where is
freight activity actually concentrated? 

FIGURE 2 maps freight volumes loaded and unloaded by road, sea and
air across EU regions in 2024. Unlike Figure 1, which measures
transport performance in tonne-kilometres, these maps show physical
freight volumes in tonnes. Sea and air data are shown at NUTS 2
(nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) level, while road
data are available at the more detailed NUTS 3 level, so the maps are
best used to identify geographical patterns within each mode rather
than to compare their degree of concentration directly. 

Air freight has a small number of particularly prominent regions. The
highest volumes were recorded in DARMSTADT (1.99 MILLION TONNES),
ÎLE-DE-FRANCE (1.98 MILLION TONNES) AND NOORD-HOLLAND
(1.50 MILLION TONNES), which include Frankfurt Airport, Paris
Charles de Gaulle Airport and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport,
respectively. 

Sea freight follows a different geography, centred on major coastal
regions. ZUID-HOLLAND AND ANTWERPEN stand out, with 407 million and
244 million tonnes, respectively, in 2024. Major maritime freight
activity is also visible along the North Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Baltic
Sea and Mediterranean Sea coastlines. 

Road freight shows a much more widespread regional pattern, with
substantial activity visible across both inland and coastal parts of
the EU. Rather than being centred around a relatively small number of
ports or airports, road loading and unloading takes place across a
dense network of regions. 

Together, the maps reveal three distinct geographies of freight: air
activity clustered around major airport regions, sea freight centred
on coastal gateways and road freight spread across a much broader
regional network. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/20260917_supply%20chains_2a_hubs.png]
FIGURE 2: FREIGHT VOLUMES BY REGION AND MODE OF TRANSPORT IN 2024 

_Sources_: Road transport: Eurostat
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/product/view/ROAD_GO_TA_RL] /
European Data Portal
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/czxapioqf5g1mkhfmx4lq?locale=en];
air transport: Eurostat
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/product/page/tgs00078] /
European Data Portal
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/s3wf94chahnyperg74ksq?locale=en];
sea transport: Eurostat
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tgs00076/default/table?lang=en&category=t_reg.t_reg_tran] /
European Data Portal
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/nuezrbuqcoisyvhekdvkq?locale=en]. 

 

_WHICH GOODS DOMINATE THE EU’S TRADE (BY WEIGHT)?_ 

The transport networks described above are part of supply chains
carrying everything from food and fuels to vehicles and computers. A
different dataset gives us another perspective: what does the EU trade
with the rest of the world, and in what physical quantities? 

FIGURE 3 shows extra-EU imports and exports between 2017 and 2025,
measured in million tonnes. Overall trade by weight declined over the
period. Imports remained consistently higher than exports, reaching
1 502 million tonnes in 2025, compared with 649 million tonnes
of exports. 

The differences between product groups are striking. The broad
category covering mining, quarrying, refinery products, fuels,
chemicals, electricity, water and waste treatment dominates trade by
weight: in 2025, it accounted for around 60 % OF THE EU’S TOTAL
EXTRA-EU TRADE TONNAGE and MORE THAN TWO THIRDS OF IMPORT TONNAGE.
Agriculture, food and related products form the second-largest group,
followed by construction-related goods. Together, these three broad
categories represented about 90 % OF EXTRA-EU TRADE BY WEIGHT in
2025. 

The balance between imports and exports also varies considerably by
product group. Imports outweigh exports particularly strongly in the
textile and mining/fuel-related categories. In contrast, exports are
higher than imports by weight for the ICT, media and computer-related
goods category and for the health and pharmaceuticals category in
2025. 

The physical weight of the EU’s trade is therefore highly
concentrated: a few broad product groups account for most of the
tonnes moving between the EU and the rest of the world, while other
categories make up much smaller physical flows. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/20260917_supply%20chains_3a_goods.png]
FIGURE 3: EXTRA-EU TRADE IN GOODS BY PRODUCT CATEGORY, 2017–2025 

_Source_: Eurostat
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ds-059329__custom_22236785/default/table] /
European Data Portal
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/3lj5lepqugagtggcokec5a?locale=en]. 

 

CONCLUSION 

The EU’s supply chains rely on goods moving through very different
transport networks. At the EU level, sea and road transport account
for most freight transport performance, but the mix varies greatly
between Member States and each mode has a distinct geography: major
airport regions stand out for air freight and coastal gateways for sea
freight, while road activity is spread much more widely. 

Physical trade with the rest of the world is also highly concentrated.
A few broad product groups account for most extra-EU trade by weight,
while import and export patterns vary considerably between
categories. 

Together, the data show that there is no single pattern behind the
movement of goods across the EU: how freight moves, where it is
concentrated and what is traded all depend strongly on the mode, place
and type of goods involved. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

