Finance
Low water hampers Rhine river shipping in Germany
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 1, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 1, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Low water levels on the Rhine are causing shipping disruptions, increasing freight costs, and affecting commodity transport. No immediate improvement is expected.
HAMBURG (Reuters) -Low water levels after recent dry weather are preventing cargo vessels from sailing fully loaded on the Rhine river in Germany with surcharges added to the usual freight rates, commodity traders said on Tuesday.
Low water is hampering shipping on all of the river south of Duisburg and Cologne, including the chokepoint of Kaub, traders said.
At Kaub, cargo vessels can only sail about 50% full.
Shallow water means vessel operators impose surcharges on freight rates to compensate for vessels not sailing fully loaded, increasing costs for cargo owners. Dry weather in March meant the river became too shallow.
Dry weather forecast for the next week in river catchment areas means that no improvement is in immediate sight, they said.
The Rhine is an important shipping route for commodities such as grains, minerals, ores, coal and oil products, including heating oil.
German companies faced supply bottlenecks and production problems in summer 2022 after a drought and heat wave led to unusually low water levels on the Rhine.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan and Thomas Seythal, editing by Kirsten Donovan)
The article discusses how low water levels on the Rhine river in Germany are affecting shipping and increasing freight costs.
Freight rates are increased due to surcharges imposed because vessels cannot sail fully loaded.
Commodities such as grains, minerals, ores, coal, and oil products are affected by the shipping disruptions.
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