Public Figures

Britain’s official statistics

Port freight

Medway · January to March 2026

Medway moved 2.6m tonnes of freight in January to March 2026 — the 11th-busiest of the 53 UK major ports that quarter, on provisional figures.

Read from the Department for Transport’s PORT0502 table, in the vintage we archived on 11 August 2026.

2.6m

tonnes

Freight through Medway, both directions, January to March 2026

Provisional — the publisher will revise this quarter

That is 2.5% of all freight through UK major ports in January to March 2026.

Its busiest quarter on our record was October to December 2022, at 4.2m tonnes — 38% above where it is now. The record starts in January to March 2009.

The busiest UK major ports in January to March 2026

  1. 1stLondon13.1m tonnes
  2. 2ndMilford Haven12.9m tonnes
  3. 3rdGrimsby and Immingham10.5m tonnes
  4. 4thSouthampton8.1m tonnes
  5. 5thLiverpool8.0m tonnes
  6. 6thTees and Hartlepool5.7m tonnes
  7. 7thFelixstowe5.3m tonnes
  8. 8thDover5.1m tonnes
  9. 9thBelfast4.7m tonnes
  10. 10thForth4.1m tonnes
  11. 11thMedway2.6m tonnes
  12. out of 53 UK major ports reporting that quarter

Tonnage in both directions, as published. “Major port” is the publisher’s own unit, and some of them are more than one place: Grimsby and Immingham are counted together, as are Tees and Hartlepool.

Every quarter on record

2009 Q11.4m tonnes4.2m tonnes across 69 readings on record2026 Q1

One cell per quarter from 2009 Q1 to 2026 Q1, shaded from this port’s own quietest quarter to its busiest. Quarters the publisher marked as not applicable are left blank rather than read as zero.

The last three years, quarter by quarter

QuarterTonnageRank among ports
2026 Q12.6m tonnes11th
2025 Q42.3m tonnes12th
2025 Q31.9m tonnes14th
2025 Q21.5m tonnes16th
2025 Q12.2m tonnes13th
2024 Q42.3m tonnes12th
2024 Q31.4m tonnes17th
2024 Q22.2m tonnes13th
2024 Q12.7m tonnes11th
2023 Q43.9m tonnes11th
2023 Q32.2m tonnes13th
2023 Q23.6m tonnes11th

How these figures are read

Figures are tonnage in both directions, in thousand tonnes as published and shown here in tonnes. The publisher’s own four-quarter totals and percentage-change columns are not used: every comparison on this page is calculated from the quarters themselves.

The publisher marks this quarter provisional. Provisional quarters are revised, and when they are, the change is logged in our corrections log.