A container ship near the bottleneck at St. Goar. (archive image)
(Photo: Reuters)
Dusseldorf There are currently no ships sailing across the Middle Rhine, but not because of the low water level. A cargo ship ran aground on Wednesday night with engine damage and blocked the fairway, according to a spokesman for the water police. No other ships could pass through the bottleneck between St. Goar and Oberwesel in Rhineland-Palatinate, and shipping had to be stopped.
The ship was towed free on Wednesday morning and brought to Bingen, as the water police announced. The tug boat with its three barges had been traveling upriver and had to drop anchor around half past one in the night. As a result, shipping on the busy river was blocked, and was released again upstream at around 1 p.m.
According to a spokeswoman for the waterways and shipping administration, it could be a few hours before ships are allowed to sail down the Rhine again. As a result, a long traffic jam of around 20 ships that want to go down the river has now formed. “The berths are full up to Mainz,” said the spokeswoman.
Shipping on the Rhine is currently only possible to a limited extent in many places due to low water levels. Due to the low depth of the fairway, ships are no longer allowed to dive as deep into the water as usual, the operators can only load them much more easily. As a result, capacities are falling, and transport costs on the waterway have risen sharply. This leads to production problems, especially for the energy and chemical industries along the Rhine, which have many of their raw materials and preliminary products delivered by ship. Due to the enormous delivery quantities, they can hardly switch to road or rail.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Cargo ships can currently only be loaded to less than a third, Tobias Engels, the authorized representative of the shipping cooperative DTG, told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. In order to compensate for the at least 2,000 tons lower capacity of a 3,000-ton barge, 80 trucks with a payload of 25 tons would be necessary. Many logisticians lack the additional capacity for this – and Deutsche Bahn also declines.
More about low water:
The all-clear for Rhine shipping: Levels expected to be up to 50 centimeters higher
On Wednesday morning, the water level on the Lower Rhine near Emmerich in North Rhine-Westphalia fell to minus two centimeters and thus below the zero mark to which it had already fallen on Tuesday. Since records began, the Rhine has never had less water here, the record low in Emmerich was four centimeters on October 30, 2018. The historic low of the Rhine in Duisburg also came from the same day – this was also replaced in the late morning: With At 1.51 meters, the level in the Ruhr area was two centimeters lower.
Shipping is possible despite the negative water level
The zero point, from which the water level is measured, is above the river bed. It is set as a fixed reference – the height of the river bed itself can change constantly due to the flow of water. The zero level is usually well below historical low water levels in order to avoid negative water levels even in extreme situations.
The actual water depth of the fairway is above the water level, in Emmerich it was just under two meters. This means that shipping is still possible despite the negative water level. “We can still drive – on the entire Rhine, Emmerich can also be passed,” said DTG authorized signatory Engels on Tuesday.
The capacity bottlenecks due to the lower cargo on the ships are likely to ease at least temporarily in the coming days. The water levels of the Rhine could rise by “50 centimeters and more” by the end of next week due to the announced rain, the Rhine Waterways and Shipping Office announced on Wednesday. However, this is not an all-clear: “After the wave has passed”, the level is expected to drop again, according to the office.
With agency material
More: Rhine level near Emmerich falls below zero