In hot summers the rivers carry less water. However, the more frequently occurring extreme weather events lead to more frequent extreme low water levels. This was observed in 2018 already. Something like this also harms the economy.
Who else wants to know how the economy is doing, the need only look out the window. Anyway, to the business editors of the DW, this is true: Our offices provide a beautiful view of the Rhine.
As you can clearly see that the number of Gas and tank ships, bulk freighters, and especially the number of transported containers to be the most Reliable with the official economic correlates numbers: Buzzing for the economy, the traffic density and the container ships are full.
In hot summers, but, as it was 2018, and it threatens to repeat itself at present, the water level over the course of days, the number of passing ships is reduced and the passing barges are often loaded only half, if at all. This is but the expression of a current economic downturn, but is on the contrary a harbinger of a replenishment and distribution of delle, which in turn has a detrimental effect on the economic performance. In the past year, the German economy grew because of the low water, 0.2 percentage points less.
The low water is a wreck-free: Nowadays, a long time is set before the ships run aground, the boat trip on the Rhine.
Of the Ruhr in the world
The Rhine from the Swiss border to the North sea for cargo ships is passable and there are also a lot of industry: petrochemical industry, and chemical works in Basel and Mannheim, Cologne and Leverkusen or the heavy industry in the Ruhr: they all use rivers as a relatively cheap and practical transportation. Not coincidentally, one of the largest is Duisburg-Ruhrort inland ports in the world, on the Rhine.
The Ruhr flows into the Rhine. Duisburg Association for more than a century of heavy industry in the former ‘Kohlenpott’ with the Rhine, and through him, via Rotterdam, with its outer port, with the customers all over the world.
In Duisburg, the steel giant Thyssen at home, after the merger with the competition from the neighboring city of Essen, ThyssenKrupp is. In the case of “Thyssenkrupp Steel” is still cooked today steel.
Less steel at low water
To be “normal” times, every day, around 60,000 tonnes of coal and ore from the Dutch city of Rotterdam shipped to Duisburg, from where ThyssenKrupp steel does. The past year, however, was only part of the “normal”: in 2018, the river led to 132 days of low water – a unique extreme value.
Due to this pronounced dry period, around 200,000 tons of steel had been produced in 2018 at ThyssenKrupp, less than planned, the company said at the time.
For the consumer, the 2018er was low water felt In wide Parts of Western Germany, the car was driving to a more and more expensive pleasure. Because a smaller tank could drive ships, was the replenishment of the tank just under and petrol and Diesel also more expensive.
He is the center of trade on the and on the Rhine: The 300-year-old port of Duisburg.
Problems also Cool
The water level goes down in hot summers, means that many ships have enough water under the keel, you can first drive not loading fully, and must eventually cease operation altogether. Also companies in the chemical industry, which refer to the flow of cooling water problems: The amount of available water decreases and its temperature increases because shallow water heats up much faster.
The Ludwigshafen chemical giant BASF has taken for its chilled water systems-new cooling systems in operation and the existing equipment is optimized. In order for BASF, as the group announced in a written request to the DW, “the cooling water flows more efficiently.”
Also, ThyssenKrupp Steel said in an e-Mail to the question of how he prepared for low water events. To do this, the steel maker, included, for example, “an optimization of our weather models and a early earlier use of our Task Force, to be timely prepared.” The thus obtained time, the user is “to book additional tonnage.”
Particularly flat walking build ships
Additional room must also be booked BASF, the Ludwigshafen Charter to go more and more vessels with a lesser draught, but one step further: “In addition, we are currently developing with partners a BASF-own type of ship that is designed for use in extreme low water situations.”
At ThyssenKrupp, the “acquisition of new ships and other ship types are planned”. However, the city of Duisburg, indicate that this is a “long term process”, which is just beginning to “by the use of vessels with less draught, stands independent of low Level (to be).”
For this, you invest in your port: “We will increase and optimize the capacity in the plant’s own port. This is particularly relevant when the number of the discharge vessels is increasing in periods of low water significantly, because the individual ships cannot be fully loaded and, in consequence, often have to drive.”
“These measures”, one is convinced at ThyssenKrupp, meant ” that we can produce a (never achieved) levels of 1.50 meters in Duisburg-Ruhrort 90 percent of our daily pig iron capacity.”
2018 could be repeated
As bad as last year, it is not currently the view from the office window confirmed. Even more water in the Rhine is the dry season in 2018. However, in its Online edition, the news channel n-tv quoted an expert from the Federal Institute of hydrology, said that it had rained in the past few months in the catchment area of Germany’s largest river, to little. Instead of 630 mm in the period from November to the end of June, it rained “520 mm”. The weather should remain hot and dry, as it is currently, it will come soon to new lows on the Rhine.
Enough water in the river, the traffic is dense and the ships are full. Here, the middle Rhine at the town of Boppard.
The policy is required – and wants to deliver
The measures are likely to be insufficient is in the manufacturing industry, which is now the policy in the duty. In the case of BASF, it is stated unequivocally: “To the Rhine-infrastructure needs to be worked on.”
In Berlin that’s been seemingly answered. At the presentation of the “action plan low water of the Rhine” in July, the Federal Minister of transport, Andreas Scheuer said: “We must act now in the transportation conditions with a view to climate change to maintain a constant high.”
Whether the action plan is more than lip service, it will show in the coming years. The Plan lists many of the obvious. Among the eight single points, like “improvement of water course prediction” or “the accelerations due to the action of laws”.
The eighth point is overwritten with “Social dialogue”. Should, however, be very necessary, if to include item seven (“water building options”), for instance, with the facilities of barrages in the river should be. A very loud Protest from environmental organisations is likely to be such plans.
From Ludwigshafen to listen to, BASF was “With-signatories to the beginning of July, the action plan presented ‘low water of the Rhine’ of the Federal Ministry of transport”. And also, ThyssenKrupp is with the plans of the Minister, agreed: “The Eight-point Plan of the Minister of transport Scheuer is a good and important step.”
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