This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Exceptionally low river levels in a Europe hit hard by drought and record heat have plunged transporters into turmoil this summer, driving up costs that everyday consumers could end up bearing. Major rivers on the planet's fastest-warming continent, including the Rhine and Danube, have sustained water shortages that scientists directly link to climate change.
The situation is especially critical in Germany on the Rhine, the core of the European inland waterway transport network. "The situation is unprecedented," a spokesperson for Maersk, the Danish shipping giant, told AFP. "Today, most of the inland ports along the Rhine cannot be reached by barge anymore." Clecat, a European association that represents freight forwarders, agreed that the "most acute disruption has been on the Rhine." It said that at Kaub, a critical bottleneck for traffic on the river, the water gauge fell to around 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) on Aug. 14, below the previous record low of 25 centimeters in 2018.
"The effects are being felt along the major industrial corridor from Rotterdam," Clecat said, adding that "conditions are also severe on parts of the Danube, particularly in Serbia, Hungary and Romania." One workaround for logistics operators is to move as much cargo as possible from rivers to trains or trucks. "The aim is to ... keep the distances traveled on the Rhine as short as possible," transport company Contargo told AFP. But the opportunities for rail and road transport are limited.
Jean-Laurent Kistler, development director at the French waterways authority (VNF) in Strasbourg, where the Rhine forms the border with Germany, estimated that transporting the load of a single barge required "100 to 200 trucks." But many products transported in bulk—such as chemicals, hydrocarbons, construction materials or grain—are not easily transferred to containers. VNF Strasbourg says the load carried by ships on the Rhine fell from an average of 1,500 tonnes to just 400 tonnes in August. Clecat noted that the low river levels had already resulted in "higher transport costs, delays, postponed shipments and reduced production flexibility." "The ships have to sail with lighter loads than usual to have less draft," said Alexandre Charpentier, transport specialist at the consulting firm Roland Berger, referring to how deep a vessel sits in the water.
"With fixed costs remaining the same, this leads to very significant unit cost increases," he said. Operators pass on the resulting costs by applying low-water surcharges, which they introduce progressively if river levels keep falling. These costs have reached more than 1,000 euros ($1,170) in surcharges per container at the most strained points, such as Kaub or Cologne, according to Contargo's rates.
"It can quickly double for container freight" and "be even more drastic for bulk cargo," said Pierre Cossart, director of Sogestran Logistics. According to Clecat, "whether higher logistics costs translate materially into consumer prices depends on the duration of the disruption, the commodity and companies' ability to absorb or pass on costs." Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. d research that matter—daily or weekly. But it noted that "for many bulk commodities, transport is an important component of the delivered price, so sustained increases will ultimately be felt further down the supply chain." Charpentier said it was too early to forecast eventual price increases for consumers but warned that the extra costs were difficult to absorb in full.
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