Maritime transport

Ports

The Norwegian law of ports and waters define ports as “a quay or quays with associated sea and land areas that are adapted for the reception and mooring of vessels in business or public service, and other areas that are connected to these.”

Domestic and foreign freight transport

Ships sailing between Norwegian ports are considered domestic sea transport. Ships sailing between Norwegian and foreign ports are considered international sea transport. This also applies for goods and passengers. International gods in transit is considered international gods when arriving in a Norwegian port, however the same goods are considered domestic gods if later transported between domestic ports.

Loading and unloading

Loading – Goods placed on a ship for transport by sea.

Unloading – Gods taken off a ship.

Type of goods

The type of goods is determined by how the goods are transported, what types of vessels that can carry the goods, and how the goods are handled when loaded and unloaded. Some types of goods require packaging, some goods are stacked, and some goods are transported in containers.

Oil and ores are examples of goods that are often transported as liquid or dry bulk. These goods typically require specialized vessels and port facilities for loading and unloading. However, oil can also be transported in barrels, which is considered break bulk cargo or general cargo. Furthermore, if the oil barrels are stored in a container which is lifted on and off the vessel, the cargo is referred to as Lo-Lo (lift-on lift-off) container cargo. The type of goods is also determined by EU standards as well as Statistics Norway’s own codes for Ro-Ro (roll-on roll-off) containers.

Loading unit

Unit which can hold goods or function as the goods (containers or vehicles).

TEU (Twenty-foot equivalent unit)

A statistical unit based on a 20-foot-long (6.10 m) ISO container to provide a standardized measure of containers of various capacities and for describing the capacity of container ships or terminals.

Types of vessels

There are multiple ways of grouping different types of ships. Statistics Norway has its own grouping standard for ship types at: https://www.ssb.no/en/klass/klassifikasjoner/76 . The grouping standard is used for data collection, as well as for producing and presenting statistics. Statistics Norway’s standard for ship types is compliant with the standard used by the European statistical office Eurostat.

Liquid bulk vessels includeoil tankers, chemical tankers, LNG and LPG tankers, tanker barge, non-inflammable tankers and other tankers.

General cargo vessels are ships designed to carry a wide range of particular cargos. This category includes reefer, Ro-Ro passenger, Ro-Ro container, other Ro-Ro cargo, combination carrier general cargo/passenger and combination carriers for general cargo/container.

Container ships are vessels fitted with fixed or portable cell guides for the exclusive carriage of containers.

Specialized carriers are vessels designed for the carriage of particular cargos. This category includes vehicle carriers, livestock carriers, irradiated fuel carriers, barge carriers and chemical carriers.

Dry bulk barges refer to deck barges, hopper barges, lighter-aboard-ship (LASH)-seabee barges, open dry cargo barges, covered dry cargo barges and other dry cargo barges.

Passenger vessels are ships designed specifically to carry more than 12 fare paying passengers whether berthed or unberthed.

Fishing vessels includes fish catching and fish-processing vessels.

Off shore vessels includes drilling and exploration vessels and offshore support vessels.

Tugboats also include vessels with pushing capabilities.

Miscellaneous ships are dredging barges, research ships and ships not mentioned elsewhere.

North and south going passengers traveling with Hurtigruten

Hurtigruten traveling north is referred to as north going traffic, and Hurtigruten traveling south is referred to as south going traffic. The data for Hurtigruten only encompasses passengers and describes how many passengers who start and end their journey in each of the ports Hurtigruten visits while traveling up and down the coast. A complete journey up and down the coast is registered as a single trip. A passenger traveling with Hurtigruten on a round trip from Bergen to Bergen is therefore counted as one passenger.

The standard for products in Statistics Norway’s transport statistics is based on the EU transport statistics product nomenclature NST 2007.

The standard for classifying cargo types in maritime transport is based on code lists from Eurostat.