Tanker monitor trends
2 April 2025 - Written by ML
Overview
This report examines tanker traffic data collected by the IMF’s Portwatch(International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2025) service. The service provides weekly vessel data that tracks port calls and volume of imports and exports by way of satellite and AIS communications. The methodology is set out in a 2021 paper by Serkan Arslanalp, Robin Koepke, Jasper Verschuur(Arslanalp et al., 2021).
The data includes cargo as well as tankers and within cargo category there are containers, general cargo, bulk and roll on roll off vessels. There are no more granular breakdown of tanker in the data set.
In this report we describe the general data set, then total cargo and tanker trade, and, then focus on the tanker segment exports and imports. In a follow up report we will be more focused on oil and gas producer market tanker activity. There are certain limitations of the approach that include: a lack of distinction in tanker type, absence from inclusion of pipeline or rail shipments, and, the exclusion of states without ports.
General characteristics
The dataset contains 3.7 million daily records of 30 variables that span the period from 2019-01-01 through to 2025-03-25. We set out below some of the features.
Core metrics
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Time coverage | 2019-01-01 to 2025-03-25 |
| Total observations | 3,770,292 |
| Unique days | 2,274 |
| Unique months | 75 |
| Countries covered | 180 |
| Ports monitored | 1,658 |
Key Limitations:
No distinction between oil or gas tankers (or between liquefied petroleum gas or liquefied natural gas or other gases.)
Excludes pipeline shipments
Omits landlocked producers
Country Port count
Top 10 Countries by number of ports are Japan, US and China. Though this excludes many smaller ports that have less trade volume.
| Country | ISO Code | Number of Ports |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | JPN | 108 |
| United States | USA | 107 |
| China | CHN | 82 |
| Indonesia | IDN | 75 |
| United Kingdom | GBR | 67 |
| Australia | AUS | 51 |
| Norway | NOR | 46 |
| Italy | ITA | 41 |
| Spain | ESP | 38 |
| Brazil | BRA | 36 |
Trade Volume Analysis
- Annual Summary (Billions of tonnes)
| Year | Tanker Imports | Tanker Exports | Total Trade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 26.7 |
| 2020 | 4.7 | 3.9 | 26.4 |
| 2021 | 5.1 | 4.1 | 28.1 |
| 2022 | 5.6 | 4.5 | 29.3 |
| 2023 | 5.6 | 4.4 | 29.4 |
| 2024 | 5.6 | 4.4 | 30.8 |
| 2025 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 6.4 |
5-Year Averages (2019-2024)
| Mean Imports | Growth | Mean Exports | Growth | Mean Trade | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.25 | 0.13 | 4.21 | 0.1 | 28.46 | 0.15 |
Trade type Comparison
Import Export Trend
Appendix: Full Data Table
| Metric | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| export | 12.70 | 12.70 | 13.40 | 13.80 | 13.80 | 14.50 | 3.00 |
| export_cargo | 8.70 | 8.80 | 9.30 | 9.30 | 9.40 | 10.10 | 2.10 |
| export_container | 2.90 | 3.00 | 3.20 | 3.10 | 3.30 | 3.70 | 0.80 |
| export_dry_bulk | 4.90 | 5.00 | 5.20 | 5.20 | 5.10 | 5.30 | 1.10 |
| export_general_cargo | 0.70 | 0.70 | 0.80 | 0.90 | 0.90 | 1.00 | 0.20 |
| export_roro | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.00 |
| export_tanker | 4.00 | 3.90 | 4.10 | 4.50 | 4.40 | 4.40 | 0.90 |
| import | 14.00 | 13.70 | 14.70 | 15.50 | 15.60 | 16.30 | 3.40 |
| import_cargo | 9.10 | 9.00 | 9.60 | 9.90 | 10.00 | 10.70 | 2.20 |
| import_container | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.20 | 3.20 | 3.30 | 3.90 | 0.80 |
| import_dry_bulk | 5.10 | 5.10 | 5.40 | 5.50 | 5.50 | 5.50 | 1.20 |
| import_general_cargo | 0.80 | 0.80 | 0.90 | 1.10 | 1.10 | 1.20 | 0.30 |
| import_roro | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.00 |
| import_tanker | 4.90 | 4.70 | 5.10 | 5.60 | 5.60 | 5.60 | 1.20 |
| portcalls | 2.27 | 2.31 | 2.54 | 2.76 | 2.80 | 2.97 | 0.63 |
| portcalls_cargo | 1.67 | 1.72 | 1.91 | 2.09 | 2.13 | 2.28 | 0.48 |
| portcalls_container | 0.45 | 0.44 | 0.43 | 0.44 | 0.48 | 0.47 | 0.10 |
| portcalls_dry_bulk | 0.26 | 0.25 | 0.26 | 0.27 | 0.26 | 0.27 | 0.06 |
| portcalls_general_cargo | 0.86 | 0.94 | 1.12 | 1.28 | 1.28 | 1.44 | 0.30 |
| portcalls_roro | 0.10 | 0.09 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.02 |
| portcalls_tanker | 0.60 | 0.59 | 0.63 | 0.68 | 0.67 | 0.69 | 0.15 |
| total_cargo | 17.80 | 17.80 | 18.90 | 19.30 | 19.50 | 20.80 | 4.30 |
| total_container | 6.00 | 6.00 | 6.30 | 6.30 | 6.60 | 7.60 | 1.60 |
| total_dry_bulk | 10.10 | 10.10 | 10.60 | 10.70 | 10.60 | 10.80 | 2.20 |
| total_general_cargo | 1.50 | 1.60 | 1.80 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.20 | 0.50 |
| total_roro | 0.20 | 0.20 | 0.20 | 0.20 | 0.20 | 0.20 | 0.00 |
| total_tanker | 8.90 | 8.60 | 9.20 | 10.10 | 10.00 | 10.00 | 2.10 |
| total_trade | 26.70 | 26.40 | 28.10 | 29.30 | 29.40 | 30.80 | 6.40 |