A hot, dry July, made worse by climate change, has increased the risk that the German economy could snag as falling Rhine waters make navigation on the river difficult.
The prospect of severe, longer-term traffic restrictions is a new headache for industries based along the river’s banks and threatens to further strain Germany’s efforts to wean itself off Russian energy imports, as coal is a key cargo transported by waterway.
According to Roberto Spranzi, head of the shipping cooperative DTG, the transport volumes of his fleet are already limited by the unusually low water levels.
“Right now we have a capacity where we need to use three or four ships where we would normally need one,” Spranzi tells AFP.
Looking at the worrying low tide at the entrance to Duisburg’s inland port, Spranzi states: “It’s currently 1.70 meters. Theoretically, the normal water level is over two meters.”
Further upstream at Kaub, a well-known shipping bottleneck where the Rhine runs narrow and shallow, the reference level is expected to fall below 40 centimeters by the end of the week, further restricting traffic.
“We supply factories on the Rhine with their raw materials. If that is no longer possible or less frequent, it is also a threat to German industry,” says Spranzi.
– coal power –
Around four percent of Germany’s freight traffic is transported via its waterways, including the Rhine, which meanders from Switzerland along the border with France through Germany’s industrial heartland and the Netherlands to the sea.
As Berlin turns to mothballed coal-fired capacity to fill the gap after Russia cut energy supplies, the Rhine has gained prominence as a key artery for coal transport.
But falling water levels have already warned utilities that they may have to limit output.
Uniper said the Rhine’s low levels could lead to “irregular operation” of two of its coal-fired power plants by September.
EnBW, which operates sites in south-western Baden-Württemberg, has warned that supplies of the fuel could be restricted.
The dwindling waters have led to a rise in “transport costs per tonne”, EnBW said in a statement, adding that it had pre-emptively built up coal stocks earlier in the year.
Alternative routes are available — either by road or rail — but capacity is “scarce,” EnBW said.
Freight restrictions on the Rhine have increased supply chain disruption in the industry and increased the risk of shortages.
Throughout southern Germany, fuel shortages at the pump are attributed to the dry weather, among other things.
“Due to low water levels on the Rhine, very important transports of mineral oil products such as petrol, diesel or heating oil cannot operate as usual in this area,” says Alexander von Gersdorff, spokesman for the German energy and fuel industry interest group.
– ‘Much earlier’ –
According to Deutsche Bank Research, a drought in 2018, during which the reference depth of the Rhine near Kaub fell to up to 25 centimeters in October, reduced German GDP by 0.2 percent this year.
“The lows came much earlier this time,” Marc Schattenberg, an economist at Deutsche Bank Research, told AFP.
“If the problems we are seeing now last longer (than 2018), the economic depreciation will be all the more severe.”
Industrial heavyweights stationed along the Rhine rely on the waterway to move goods to and from their locations.
Duisburg-based conglomerate ThyssenKrupp said in a statement it had “taken action” to secure its raw material supply.
Chemical giant BASF, whose Ludwigshafen site is south of the Kaub Bottleneck, said its production has not yet been curtailed by the low water levels but warned it cannot rule out “cuts for certain units in the coming weeks”.
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