In 2019, there were 28,584 port arrivals by 5981 foreign-flagged vessels in Australian ports. While this is a decrease in port arrivals by 1.8% from 2018, there was an increase in the number of unique ships by 1.4%.
Figure 1a. Total foreign-flag vessel port arrivals by year.
Figure 1b. Total unique vessel port arrivals by year.
Bulk carriers accounted for the majority (50.4%) of foreign flag port arrivals in 2019, with container vessels being the next most common (15.2%).2
Figure 2. Foreign-flagged port arrivals by vessel type (2019)
The proportion of port arrivals by vessel type remained relatively consistent across the years (Figure 3), with bulk carriers dominating.
Figure 3. Foreign flag port arrivals by vessel type and year (2016 to 2019)
Footnote: 2 ‘Other’ vessel types includes tugs, offshore service vessels and other vessel types.