RWI/ISL- Container Throughput Index

Global trade defies trade wars – Europe lags behind

19.12.2025

Global trade is proving to be more stable than expected in the current year. According to the latest flash estimate, the container throughput index compiled by the RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) fell only slightly to 137.5 points in November. The overall index is thus virtually unchanged compared with the beginning of the year. Europe is struggling with structural problems. Although container throughput in the ports of the northern eurozone rose by 6.8 index points on a seasonally adjusted basis compared with the previous month, this increase is attributable to the end of the strike in Antwerp. As a result, European ports continue to lag behind global throughput, and the gap with other regions of the world is not closing.

The essence in a nutshell:

The container throughput index compiled by the RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) fell to 137.5 points in November after seasonal adjustment, compared with 138.1 points (revised) in the previous month.
The Nordrange Index, which provides indications of economic development in the northern eurozone and Germany, rose sharply from 111.2 points (revised) to 118.0 points in November.
Container throughput in Chinese ports also declined, from 152.3 points in the previous month (revised) to 150.2 points.
The RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index for December 2025 will be published on January 30, 2026.

Torsten Schmidt

RWI-Konjunkturchef

Global container throughput is proving remarkably resilient to trade policy turmoil. For Europe, this is no reason to sound the all-clear. While we are stagnating, others are consolidating their positions on the world market. The globalization dividend has been used up. Anyone who still relies on exports instead of structural reforms is playing Russian roulette with the future. Solutions for domestic growth weakness must therefore be found in Germany.

About the RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index:

The index includes data on container throughput collected on an ongoing basis by the ISL Monthly Container Port Monitor from 90 international ports, which account for around 64 percent of global container throughput. The current flash estimate for the container throughput index is based on data from 75 percent of the throughput represented in the index. Since international trade is mainly conducted by sea, container transshipments allow reliable conclusions to be drawn about world trade. Because many ports report on their activities just two weeks after the end of a month, the RWI/ISL Container Transshipment Index is a reliable early indicator of developments in international trade in manufactured goods and thus also of global economic activity.

The Container Throughput Index is part of the foreign trade statistics in the Federal Statistical Office’s „Dashboard Deutschland“

Data series for individual ports are available in the ISL Monthly Container Port Monitor

Further background information on the RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index can be found at www.rwi-essen.de/containerindex