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Jul 15, 2020 at 7:04 AMThe IHK Saarland presented the annual report 2019 for the Saarland ports on the Saar and Moselle. A decline of 12 percent had to be accepted. The main reasons were the declining economy and long low water periods. Deepening the Rhine and faster expansion of the Moselle locks is urgently required.
(Saarbrücken) Last year, the cargo handling at the Saarland ports on the Saar and Moselle fell by around 12 percent compared to 2018, totaling three million tons. The reason for this decline, in addition to the weak industrial economy, is particularly the months-long low water situation on the Rhine due to the dry winter and hot summer. Since ships on the Rhine could either not operate at all or only with reduced loads, this particularly affected the transport of bulk goods for the Saarland economy. This has collapsed by more than a quarter compared to 2018. In contrast, the less weight-critical shipping was able to increase slightly during the same period.
“The decline in the transported goods volume once again underscores how important well-developed waterways are for environmentally friendly shipping of goods. Therefore, we appeal to Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer to deepen the fairway, especially on the Middle and Lower Rhine. Only in this way will it be possible to cope with the low water periods that are expected to occur more frequently due to climate change. And only then will it be possible to shift additional traffic from the road to the waterways.” This is how IHK Managing Director Dr. Carsten Meier commented on the current figures for inland shipping in Saarland, which were published by the Statistical Office of Saarland.
Expansion of the Moselle Locks Demanded
The IHK also considers the expansion of the Moselle locks to be equally important. The now over 60-year-old and correspondingly prone to disruption structures represent another bottleneck in the inland shipping network on the way to and from Saarland. “Therefore, we also see the federal government as having the obligation to accelerate the expansion of the Moselle locks. The current timetable is not ambitious enough from our point of view,” said Meier.
The IHK points out that the largest customers for inland shipping are the Saarland steel industry, power plants, and the construction industry. More than a third of the handled goods volume consists of ores, stones, as well as coke and mineral oil products. With 700,000 tons, raw and fuel materials such as coal, crude oil, and natural gas follow. Conversely, metals and metal products amounting to almost 900,000 tons are shipped via waterways – about two-thirds of which go abroad.
© IHK Saarland
