Turnover increased in most transport subsectors. The highest growth was recorded in the storage and services for transport sector, which saw an 8.9% rise. Air transport followed with a 5.5% increase, while land transport recorded a 3.8% growth.
In contrast, the water transport sector saw turnover decline by 5.4%, with both maritime and coastal shipping and inland shipping contributing to the decrease. Turnover in maritime and coastal shipping fell by 5.3%, while inland shipping turnover was down by 5.7%. The post and courier sector also reported a decline of 4.4% in the final quarter of the year.
For the full year 2024, turnover in the transport sector increased by 3.9% compared to 2023. Almost all subsectors saw growth, with storage and services for transport rising by 5.9%, land transport by 4.2%, air transport by 2.4%, and post and couriers by 1.7%. Water transport was the only subsector to report a decline, with turnover falling by 1.3% compared to the previous year.
The number of bankruptcies in the transport sector decreased in the fourth quarter of 2024, with 65 transport companies going out of business. This was 12 fewer than in the third quarter, representing a 15.6% decline. However, CBS noted that despite the quarterly decrease, the total number of bankruptcies remained higher than in previous years.
Business confidence in the transport sector declined at the start of 2025. CBS reported that confidence fell to -8.3, a sharp drop from the positive 1.7 recorded in the previous quarter. This figure indicates that entrepreneurs in the transport sector are more pessimistic than the average Dutch entrepreneur, with overall business confidence across all sectors in the Netherlands standing at -5.4 at the beginning of the year.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, prices in the transport and storage sector were 2.8% higher than in the same period a year earlier, although price developments varied across subsectors. CBS reported that prices for the rental of seagoing vessels declined by 9.1%, the largest price drop in four years. Prices for inland shipping freight also continued to fall, decreasing by 7.9% compared to the previous year. Within this sector, prices for the transport of liquid bulk saw a particularly steep decline of 14.6%.
These figures are based on preliminary data and are subject to revision, according to Statistics Netherlands.