Setback for inland shipping in 2020
France's inland navigation industry saw a decline last year after very strong growth in 2019 (+10% with 7.4 billion tkm). In 2020, river transport recorded a decrease of -10.5% in volumes (50.9 million t transported) and -11.5% in tkm (6.6 billion tkm). Thus, the level of activity is now close to that recorded in 2018, again (approx. 6.7 billion tkm).
As in the years before, the main shipping segments using the inland waterway in 2020 were construction materials and agriculture with 22.5 million t and 13.2 million t, respectively.
Altogether, the cereal sector was up 19.7% in tkm compared to 2019, due to an upswing at end of the 2019/2020 season and a very dynamic start in 2020/2021 in terms of exports to third countries outside the EU. The energy sector's performance improved by a 3.9% increase in tkm due to more imports of petroleum products via Dunkirk.