300 million tons of freight was carried by container and other cargo vessels via German sea ports in 2018, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
In comparison with the previous year, maritime transport to and from Germany increased by 1.6 percent and has carried “approximately 61 times” as much cargo as air transport, according to Destatis.
The German government believes that the danger to ships in international waters from pirate attacks had been “declining for years”.