Low water on the Rhine
“This is a significant economic risk”
8/30/2022, 7:54 p.m
The low-water summit in Mainz has agreed on a commission – nothing more. Inland waterway transport warns the federal government against further delaying the rehabilitation of the waterways and thus to put in danger. The entire infrastructure has been seriously neglected, says Marcel Lohbeck, Managing Director of the Federal Association of Public Ports, in an interview with ntv.de.
ntv.de: How did the conversation go?
Marcel Lobeck It was a constructive and open discussion. We talked about the implementation of the “Low Water Rhine” action plan, which was developed jointly by business and politics as a result of the low water levels in 2018. The industry has positively emphasized that we are now receiving reliable level forecasts that go six weeks into the future. It was also praised that the conversion of ships is funded with up to 80 percent to make them fit for low water.
But that was emphasized by business even before the summit.
The industry has now made it clear that persistent low water does not only mean high additional logistics costs, supply bottlenecks and production losses for a short time. The medium to long-term image damage is even more serious. When industrial customers lose confidence in the reliability of supply chains, they then look for alternatives. In this country there is a risk of value creation losses – and locations will be called into question.
But surely BASF hasn’t announced or threatened to move production abroad?
Today, the industry has expressly committed itself to Germany as a location. But the federal government must react to this promise with investments in the waterways, otherwise there will be creeping deindustrialization. The entire infrastructure has been severely neglected. Germany would have to invest at least 1.7 billion euros in its waterways every year, but it doesn’t. After an increase was in sight, the Federal Ministry of Finance reduced the item for 2023 by 350 million euros. Only in the medium term are 1.7 billion euros targeted, which is far too late to ease the situation in the long term.
Haven’t you received any signals that more money should flow?
No, we didn’t talk about finances. All that was asserted was that the financing for eliminating the bottleneck on the Rhine, for example at the critical point near Kaub, was secured and that the planning should not fail due to the number of staff.
So far, that should happen by 2030. Inland shipping and industry want an earlier date. Recently, the federal government has been talking about 2033. When will the project be finished?
Marcel Lohbeck is Managing Director of the Federal Association of Public Ports
Here we clearly demand more transparency and speed. We in business would like to know where the stumbling blocks lie. So far, the federal government has referred to environmental hurdles. Even 2033 is mentioned with great caution. Federal Transport Minister Wissing did not even want to commit to the year, which is significant. After all, a working group is to be set up with the participation of industry, which is to submit proposals on how things could go faster.
It didn’t take today’s round to decide to set up a commission. Nothing really new came up at the summit, right?
The commitment to more transparency is positive and more than nothing, but there has been nothing seriously new. However, I also had no great expectations of the meeting.
What does all this mean for the economy?
The fragile transport logistics are still a significant economic risk for Germany. The 60 million euros that were planned for removing the bottlenecks in the Middle Rhine will not be enough. The amount will increase considerably simply because of the compensatory measures for the environment and current increases in construction costs. The economic damage caused by low water in 2018 was more than two billion euros. Now it looks like this is repeating itself, but on a much larger scale. 60 million euros plus X for structural measures in and on the Rhine are nothing against that. Especially since the next low water is guaranteed to come.
The renunciation of Russian raw materials and energy has massively increased the demand for barges that supply the coal-fired power plants in Germany.
Many dry freighters are in use to ensure the energy supply. At the same time, a lot of cargo space is on the way on the Danube to bring grain and other products from the Ukraine. This significantly streamlines freight capacities.
What are the consequences?
Various industries, above all steel and chemicals, are dependent on a constant supply of energy and raw materials. If that doesn’t happen, they have to cut back production or, if it’s no longer profitable because of the enormous increase in energy costs and drastic additional expenses for transport, close down. A blast furnace that has to be shut down because it can no longer be fired with coal cannot be restarted. It has to be rebuilt.
The railway is also reaching its limits, it seems.
At the summit today, business pointed out that the railways had massive problems. When the water was low in 2018, it was able to absorb significantly more, which is no longer possible because the capacities are currently not available. You shouldn’t have any illusions about that. This is not structurally possible, the route network cannot be expanded from now on. In addition, there are currently too many construction sites along the rail network. This increases the pressure on logistics. Waterways are the only mode of transport that is far from exhausted its capacity.
Thomas Schmoll spoke to Marcel Lohbeck.