Public Figures

Britain’s official statistics

Port freight

Orkney · January to March 2026

Orkney moved 315,467 tonnes of freight in January to March 2026 — the 35th-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.

315,467

tonnes

Freight through Orkney, both directions, January to March 2026

Provisional — the publisher will revise this quarter

That is 0.3% of all freight through UK major ports in January to March 2026.

Its busiest quarter on our record was July to September 2017, at 1.3m tonnes — 75% 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. 24 ports between
    35thOrkney315,467 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 Q1150,657 tonnes1.3m 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 Q1315,467 tonnes35th
2025 Q4322,818 tonnes35th
2025 Q3411,835 tonnes35th
2025 Q2417,721 tonnes35th
2025 Q1416,783 tonnes35th
2024 Q4400,472 tonnes35th
2024 Q3399,306 tonnes35th
2024 Q2396,854 tonnes35th
2024 Q1489,798 tonnes33rd
2023 Q4388,092 tonnes35th
2023 Q3330,975 tonnes36th
2023 Q2494,919 tonnes34th

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.