Bulgaria among EU leaders in inland waterway transit
Bulgaria was among the European Union countries with the highest share of transit transport on inland waterways in 2025, accounting for 92.8% of total freight transport. The country ranked behind Croatia (97.2%) and ahead of Luxembourg (87.9%), Slovakia (83.0%) and Hungary (60.1%), according to data published by Eurostat on Wednesday.
In 2025, freight transport on EU inland waterways reached 118.0 billion tonne-kilometres (tkm), indicating a 3.0% decrease, or 3.7 billion tkm, compared with 2024, CE Report quotes BTA.
The data show that after a period of relatively steady volumes between 2015 and 2017, at around 145-146 billion tkm, freight transport dropped sharply in 2018. It partially recovered in 2019 and 2021, but did not return to its previous levels. From 2022, the trend turned downward again, reaching a low of 116.4 billion tkm in 2023, before a partial recovery to 121.6 billion tkm in 2024.
Germany and the Netherlands remained the leading countries in terms of freight transport on inland waterways in 2025, with 42.7 billion tkm and 42.2 billion tkm, respectively. Together, they accounted for 71.9% of total EU inland waterway transport.
At EU level, international transport accounted for the largest share, at 54.7% of the total, followed by national transport at 24.9% and transit transport at 20.4%.
International transport was predominant in Austria (74.0%), Germany (64.1%) and Belgium (57.2%). National transport was dominant in Czechia (97.4%), Poland (82.2%) and France (60.2%), while only national transport was recorded in Lithuania, Finland and Sweden in 2025.
By type of goods, metal ores accounted for the largest share, at 22.2% of all transport, followed by coke and refined petroleum products (16.2%), as well as chemicals, rubber and plastic and nuclear fuel (14.3%).
Compared with 2024, the largest decrease was recorded in the transport of agricultural products, at 19.7%, while the largest increase was recorded for coal and crude petroleum, at 21.3%.
Photo: Wikipedia
