Rotterdam’s 2025 container figures point to a fundamental reorientation of global trade flows rather than cyclical fluctuation, with import growth accelerating while exports continue to decline and transhipment volumes contracting sharply.
The results align with trends identified in the Port of Rotterdam Authority’s 2026 Container Market Outlook, developed in collaboration with Xeneta analyst Peter Sand.
Import volumes rose by an average of 3.9% , led by a 9.3% increase in full containers from Asia and a 16% surge from North America. Exports told a markedly different story.
Shipments to Asia fell by a further 4% in 2025, extending a long-term deterioration that has left exports to Asia down 20% compared to the 2018 peak, with exports to China more than 40% lower over the same period.
The cumulative effect has been a structural container imbalance: between 2020 and 2025, the gap between imports and exports widened by 1.47 million TEU, driving a corresponding increase in empty container circulation.
Frank van der Laan, Senior Business Intelligence Advisor at the Port of Rotterdam Authority, attributed the export weakness not to temporary demand softness but to structural shifts in the European-Asian economic relationship.
He pointed to China’s emergence as a technologically advanced manufacturing competitor in high-value sectors, rising European production costs driven by energy prices and regulatory burdens, and China’s redirection of export flows following partial loss of the US market as compounding factors.
Carrier network changes exerted a significant influence on Rotterdam’s volume mix in 2025, in some cases outweighing macroeconomic demand as a driver of port-level performance.
The reconfiguration of container alliances and shipping route reorganisation gave Rotterdam a more prominent position within several North American services, contributing to the 16% volume increase on that corridor despite an overall slight decline in EU-US trade.
Conversely, a redistribution of South American calls shifted cargo to competing ports, reducing Rotterdam’s market share on that trade lane.
The year also marked the first large-scale application of the hub-and-spoke model in European container traffic, with major deep-sea calls concentrated at a limited number of hubs while regional ports absorbed feeder and distribution flows.
This structural shift is increasingly determining how cargo enters Europe and moves through the continental logistics network.
Hinterland transport volumes rose 11.7% , reaching a record of over one million TEU in November. However, total volume growth of 3% trailed the European average, as terminal capacity constraints forced a trade-off between transhipment and hinterland flows.
Transhipment volumes declined by 16% as a result, with cargo diverted to other regional ports to optimise hinterland utilisation.
Van der Laan concluded that the container chain is becoming structurally more volatile, driven by the convergence of geopolitical tensions, climate disruptions and carrier network instability.
