Shallow water on the Rhine threatens gasoline supplies in the southwest
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Stand: 08.08.2022 | Reading time: 3 minutes
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The extreme heat is over – drought and risk of forest fires remain
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Europe has been suffering from widespread drought for several years, but this year it is particularly severe. Not only ecosystems suffer from it, but agriculture, transport and industry as well. In many places in Germany, too, the ground has dried up like never before.
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Inland waterway vessels can still operate to a large extent. But the situation in the Upper Rhine in Baden-Württemberg is worsening dramatically. There are only half-full freighters arriving. If there is no rain in the southwest, this will soon be over.
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D.The Raiffeisen associations in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are currently under pressure. The peasants carry the grain harvest and further transport from the granaries by barge across the Danube, Neckar and Rhine becomes more difficult week by week.
This is due to the lack of transport capacity and, increasingly, to the low tide of the Upper Rhine. “The nerves are at the limit with the cooperatives,” says an expert who does not want to be named. Coal-fired power plant operators in the southwest of the country also report predictable bottlenecks in their coal reserves. Plants are currently starting up again to replace natural gas from Russian supplies with domestic coal or imported from other countries for energy production.
Four years after the 2018 low tide century on the Upper Rhine, a problematic situation on Germany’s most important water transport route is recurring. This could hit industry and consumers hard. In the southern part of the river, the water level on the Rhine falls to values that in a few weeks would no longer make economically viable inland navigation possible in the regions. The reason for this is persistent drought.
A level of 53 centimeters was last measured at the measuring station in Kaub in Rhineland-Palatinate. The extreme value of the 2018 crisis year was 23 centimeters. Water levels are an arithmetic value, plus the usual lower water level depending on the region. Together, this results in the depth of the water.
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For inland waterway skippers, this means that, depending on the load, they can only cross the Rhine with half-loaded merchant ships. Coal freighters have only half on board instead of 10,000 tons and have to travel more often for delivery quantities. Navigation on the Rhine will not be blocked even if the water level continues to drop. This is possible as long as inland waterway skippers wish to continue their journey with a lighter load.
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The situation on the Rhine is very different: on the Lower Rhine near Duisburg, the water level and water depth are still at the usual values for this time of year. The current depth of the water is around 1.80 meters. According to the trade association, the entire fleet of ships operating there is in use.
Coal-fired power plants on the Lower Rhine would largely be stocked with supplies. This is different in the Southwest. According to information from “Handelsblatt”, the power plant operator Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) had to restrict the operation of the plants in Heilbronn, Marbach and Walheim.
The supply of gasoline, diesel and heating oil in the southwest of the country is also largely dependent on inland navigation. In 2018, some petrol stations were no longer able to sell fuel. The chemical industry, for example at BASF in Ludwigshafen, and steel producers are also largely dependent on supplies from the Rhine.
Romanian companies are buying German barges
It will be decisive for the further development of navigation on the Rhine if there are several rainy days on the Upper Rhine until September. Rain which lasts for days, for example in the Black Forest, can fill the entire Rhine with water to such an extent that inland navigation immediately increases again. However, the predictions of the Federal Institute of Hydrology do not assume a rapid change in the situation.
But even if the water levels for boaters aren’t great for this time of year, the transportation problem is definitely there. Due to the start of grain deliveries from Ukraine, there is a lack of shipping capacity on the Rhine.
In particular, Romanian entrepreneurs have bought barges from the German market in recent months in order to manage the transport of grain along the Danube ports. Big business awaits the transport companies there, namely whether transport from the Odessa port will continue to Europe on inland waterways.
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To view the embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is required, as the providers of the embedded content require such consent as a third party provider. [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (which can be revoked at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the United States, pursuant to Section 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about it. You can withdraw your consent at any time via the switch and via privacy at the bottom of the page. – –
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