In western Germany, the falling level of the Rhine due to peak summer heat makes navigation difficult. However, the river represents an essential crossing point for many German companies and in particular for coal-fired power plants.
The prospect of a partial closure of river traffic on this river, one of the busiest in the world, is a new headache for German industry, already proven by the gas crisis in Russia and the vertiginous increase in the prices of energy after the war in Ukraine.
Roberto Spranzi, head of DTG, a shipping cooperative in the industrial city of Duisburg, says his fleet of more than 100 ships already has to limit its cargoes to avoid running aground.
Pointing to the worrying ebb at the entrance to Duisburg’s inner harbor, he notes that “it is currently at 1.70 meters. In theory, the normal water level is above two meters.”
4% of freight transported by sea in Germany
“We supply raw materials to factories on the Rhine. When this is no longer possible, or less often, it is also a threat to German industry,” he says.
Upstream, at Kaub, about 30 kilometers south of Koblenz, the reference level should fall even below 40 cm by the end of the week, which would have the effect of further compressing traffic.
About 4% of cargo is transported by sea in Germany, including the Rhine, which originates in Switzerland and passes through several countries, including France and Germany, before emptying into the sea in the Netherlands.
The river has regained importance in recent months because, in particular to get away from the Russian gas on which it depends, Germany wants to turn more to coal. However, the large power plants are located mainly around the Rhine, a key river for its supply.
“Increase in transportation costs per ton”
Germany’s biggest companies have already warned that major disruptions to river traffic could deal a further blow to an economy already struggling with supplies.
Power giant Uniper said the low level of the Rhine could cause “irregular operation” of two of its coal-fired power plants in September. EnBW, which operates sites in the Baden-Württemberg region (southwest), also warned that coal deliveries could be limited.
The lowering of the level of the Rhine has caused an “increase in transport costs per ton”, warned the energy company, which already stored coal as a precaution earlier this year.
“The low water level of the Rhine means that (…) a significant transport of petroleum products, gas oil or heating oil, cannot be guaranteed normally,” stresses Alexander von Gersdorff, spokesman for the German trade association for industries. energy and fuel.
Shortage risk
Consequently, various industrial heavyweights stationed along the Rhine, such as ThyssenKrupp or BASF, are waiting for a possible slowdown in their activity. The German chemical group, based in Ludwigshafen, south of the Kaub bottleneck, warned that it could not rule out “cuts for specific units in the coming weeks”.
The decreased cargo on the Rhine adds to the supply chain disruption seen by industry, heightening the risk of shortages. In Bavaria, the shortage of fuel at the pump has been attributed, among other factors, to the low level of the river.
The 2018 drought, in which the reference depth of the Rhine at Kaub fell to 25 centimeters in October, reduced German GDP by 0.2% that year, according to Deutsche Bank Research.
“The lows came much earlier this time,” one of its economists, Marc Schattenberg, told AFP. “If the problems we’re seeing now last longer (than they did in 2018), the loss in economic value becomes much more severe,” he says.
Source: BFM TV
