Marine Transportation Data Provider: Vessel Tracks, Port Throughput and Trade Flows · Head-to-head
BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics vs Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics (mar_go / mar_pa / mar_tf)
Which marine transportation data provider: vessel tracks, port throughput and trade flows data fits your job: BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics, or Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics
Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics (mar_go / mar_pa / mar_tf)
Where the fields line up
No shared field names. These two answer different questions.
| Field | BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics | Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics |
|---|---|---|
port | Port name used in the Top 25 rankings tables. | not in this set |
imports | Import volume - TEUs or short tons depending on the table. | not in this set |
exports | Export volume - TEUs or short tons depending on the table. | not in this set |
domestic | Domestic volume component in the Top 25 tables. | not in this set |
cargo_type | Cargo category in the Port Data summary table. | not in this set |
trade_type | Trade direction or category in the Port Data summary table. | not in this set |
units | Measurement unit declared for the volume column. | not in this set |
volume | Reported volume for the port, cargo type, trade type and year combination. | not in this set |
percent_change | Change versus the prior period, in percent - computed upstream, not by you. | not in this set |
port_ranking | Rank of the port within the reported measure. | not in this set |
reporting_year | Year the row reports on. | not in this set |
port_id | BTS numeric port identifier - the stable join key across tables. | not in this set |
Coverage, side by side
| BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics | Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic | United States ports and waterways, grouped by coast (East, West, Gulf, Pacific/Atlantic) and state | EU member states plus EFTA/candidate countries; ports up to maritime coastal areas, NUTS regions 1-2 and EEZ areas |
| Temporal | Annual Top 25 rankings (2023 vintage); monthly series January 2019 into late 2023; weekly series July 2021 to September 2023; ferry censuses 2016-2024 | Annual series to 1997 (mar_mg_aa_cwh spans 1997-2024) plus quarterly collections |
| Granularity | Per port per year, month or week; operator, terminal and vessel rows in the ferry census | Per port, country, coastal area and NUTS region, by cargo type, direction and unit |
What each contains
They tie on 1 attribute. Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics | Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics | |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics (data.bts.gov) | Eurostat (European Commission statistical office) |
| Subject lens | US port performance scoreboard: top-25 container ports, dry bulk tonnage, dwell times, cruise arrivals, ferry operators | EU seaborne transport under Directive 2009/42/EC: goods gross weight, container TEUs, passengers, vessel traffic |
| Geographic coverage | United States ports and waterways, grouped by coast (East, West, Gulf, Pacific/Atlantic) and state | EU member states plus EFTA/candidate countries; ports up to maritime coastal areas, NUTS regions 1-2 and EEZ areas |
| Temporal coverage | Annual Top 25 rankings (2023 vintage); monthly series January 2019 into late 2023; weekly series July 2021 to September 2023; ferry censuses 2016-2024 | Annual series to 1997 (mar_mg_aa_cwh spans 1997-2024) plus quarterly collections |
| Granularity | Per port per year, month or week; operator, terminal and vessel rows in the ferry census | Per port, country, coastal area and NUTS region, by cargo type, direction and unit |
| Indicator families | TEUs, short tons, dwell times, ships awaiting dock, call capacity, cruise passengers, ferry operators | Gross weight handled, container units and TEUs, passenger movements, vessel counts and gross tonnage |
| Field dictionary | 15 documented fields, verified during research | 6 documented dimensions, verified during research |
| Table scale | Port Data summary alone holds 8,386 rows; dozens of published tables | Dozens of tables across the mar_mg, mar_mp, mar_pa, mar_mt and mar_tf families |
| Best for | US port capacity planning and supply-chain monitoring | Multi-decade European seaborne trade, passenger and vessel trend work |
What each does better
BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics
Operational metrics, not just volumes. BTS publishes container-vessel dwell times at the top 25 US container ports, tanker and liquid bulk dwell times, and weekly counts of container ships waiting to dock. None of Eurostat's verified families - mar_mg goods, mar_mp/mar_pa passengers, mar_mt/mar_tf vessels - reports time spent in port. For congestion work this is the whole ballgame; see port call.
Finer cadence where it matters. Monthly TEU series run from January 2019 into late 2023, weekly waiting-ship counts from July 2021, alongside monthly call-capacity tables. Eurostat's fastest release is quarterly, up to ten months after the reference quarter.
The only ferry-operator census in the pair. Five waves of the National Census of Ferry Operators (2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024) describe operators, terminals, vessels and segments across thousands of rows. Eurostat counts passengers between ports but names no operators.
Rank and change computed for you. Every Top 25 row carries its port_ranking and percent_change already attached - the sample Alaska row reads rank 18, minus 5.89 percent - so a league table is a filter rather than a build.
Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics
Nearly three decades of consistent history. The core goods table spans 1997 through 2024 - one continuous annual grid per country, collected on a single legal basis. BTS's deepest continuous series begin January 2019, and several of its monthly tables are static snapshots rather than rolling histories.
Four indicator families, harmonized across ~33-34 geographies. Gross weight handled, container units and TEUs, passengers, and vessel traffic in count plus gross tonnage share one definition per reporting country under Directive 2009/42/EC, which is what makes cross-country comparison legitimate rather than approximate.
Geography beyond the port fence. Levels run from individual ports through maritime coastal areas and NUTS regions 1-2 to countries, EU aggregates and an annual transport-performance calculation per exclusive economic zone. BTS stops at the state and coast grouping.
Passengers and the fleet itself. Passenger movements by port and route family, plus vessel counts and gross tonnage, give the traffic mix around the cargo story - context BTS simply does not publish. See liner shipping connectivity index for how these feeds feed connectivity work.
Where they're equivalent
More than their different shapes suggest. Both field dictionaries were verified during research. Both score 9 of 10 against the catalog's 7.81 average, placing each among the 679 datasets scoring 9 or better of 1,744. Both are official statistical programs with validation passes of their own - BTS attribution on every view, Eurostat returns supplied by national port authorities and customs databases. Both put freight at named ports in explicit units rather than leaving definitions to inference, and both count containers in TEUs, so a TEU-versus-TEU read across the Atlantic holds even though Eurostat tonnes never map onto BTS short tons.
Neither tracks live vessel positions either - that is AIS territory, covered elsewhere in the slice by MarineCadastre or EMODnet, and neither of these two pretends otherwise.
The verdict
Verdict: sample both, pick by fit - they are different instruments pointed at the same industry.
Take BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics if your question names a US port and a clock. Capacity planning at the top 25 container gates, week-to-week congestion reading, dry bulk tonnage rankings, cruise arrival counts, ferry market sizing from the census waves. Accept the boundary: nothing here leaves the United States, and the deepest series stop in 2023.
Take Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics (mar_go / mar_pa / mar_tf) if your question names Europe or a decade. Cross-country seaborne trade trends, container handling per member state since 1997, passenger flows, vessel tonnage mixes, regional analysis down to NUTS level. Accept the lag: quarterly releases arrive up to ten months after the fact, annuals up to sixteen.
Need both sides of the Atlantic? Pull each - neither reports outside its own territory, so there is no substitute for the other one.
Sample both, pick by fit. See BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics · See Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics
Or take both in one feed
Yes - they stack because they occupy different layers of the same system. A defensible workflow: let Eurostat set the multi-decade European backdrop - which countries hold the gross weight, how container TEU grew since 1997, where passengers sit against freight - then read BTS underneath it for the operational texture of the American gateways: dwell times, waiting ships, import/export splits at the top 25.
Two alignments decide whether the merge holds. First, identifiers: BTS names ports with names, numeric IDs and state-region groupings while Eurostat uses coded maritime geographies like BE_0BE003, so a crosswalk is mandatory - there is no shared key. Second, definitions: keep TEU against TEU, because Eurostat's thousand-tonne measures and BTS's short-ton volumes are not convertible without an assumption you would have to defend. Align on period last, pinning both pulls to explicit reference years given BTS's snapshot tables and Eurostat's release lags. For live movement context around either port set, add AIS from MarineCadastre or EMODnet density maps.
Datadory ships either record alone or both merged onto one calendar, delivered daily, weekly, or hourly - your call. Or take both in one feed.
API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
Fair questions
Is BTS Maritime Data and Port Performance Freight Statistics better than Eurostat Maritime Transport Statistics (mar_go / mar_pa / mar_tf)?
Better at different jobs. BTS owns the US operational scoreboard: top-25 container ports by TEU, container-vessel dwell times, weekly counts of ships waiting to dock and five National Census of Ferry Operators waves from 2016 to 2024. Eurostat owns the depth: gross weight handled, container TEU, passenger and vessel series reaching 1997 across roughly 33-34 reporting geographies. Both score 9 of 10 against a catalog average of 7.81.
Do the two datasets cover the same ground?
Only partly. Both publish port-level freight statistics on named ports, both count containers in TEUs, and both were field-verified during research. BTS stops at the US coastline; Eurostat reports no non-European geography. BTS adds dwell times and waiting-ship counts that no Eurostat family carries; Eurostat adds passengers and vessel tonnage that BTS does not publish.
Which dataset reaches further back?
The Eurostat series is far deeper: the core goods table spans 1997 through 2024 in one continuous annual grid. BTS's monthly TEU series start January 2019, its weekly waiting-ship series starts July 2021, and several of its monthly tables are static snapshots rather than rolling histories.
Which should an analyst studying container throughput sample first?
Start with whichever coast your question lives on. BTS shows New York and New Jersey at 5,352,134 import TEUs against 1,252,065 export TEUs in the Top 25 table; Eurostat keys European ports like Antwerp-Bruges (BE_0BE003) inside a top-20 main-port breakdown. Then add the other for continental context.
Can Datadory deliver both datasets together?
Yes - alone or merged onto one calendar, delivered daily, weekly, or hourly, your call. Each arrives normalized to its documented field dictionary (15 fields on the BTS side, six dimensions on Eurostat's) with sample rows for inspection before anything ships. The joining work is a port alias table plus a period alignment.