
Where the tonnage is heading. Every vessel underway broadcasts a destination and a crew-keyed ETA; we resolve those to our ports and rank harbours by how much shipping is inbound right now — the forward-looking complement to port-call history.
Of the 720 vessels inbound to the 60 ports on this board, the busiest five destinations pull 23%, and Spain leads across its 9 harbours with 124.
Each nation's inbound folded across every harbour it holds on the board — the aggregate pull the port ranking scatters.
Inbound = vessels underway (> 1 kn) whose AIS destination resolves to the port by UNLOCODE or name; junk destinations (“FOR ORDERS”, “FISHFARMS”) are dropped. “Nearest” is the closest inbound vessel’s great-circle range. “Soonest ETA” is our computed arrival — the real sea-route distance (around land and through canals) at the vessel’s passage speed — falling back to the crew’s own reported ETA. A destination is intent, not a fixture.