Germany has largely lifted its ban on trucks using roads at weekends to compensate for restricted water vessel traffic, as water levels on the Rhine and other rivers drop further.
Permitting weekend road haulage was the most immediate practicable measure raised during a crisis meeting between German transport minister Steffen Bilger and representatives of industries and interest groups last week. On Wednesday, Berlin and Brandenburg were among the last of 16 German states to give the green light for truck transport on Sundays.
However, “big volumes of freight cannot be transferred to truck or train that easily, because the space is not available that quickly, and costs are much higher than for water transport,” one Frankfurt rebar distributor writes in a note to customers. “It remains to be seen how this will affect steel prices in the coming weeks.”
Although it has not been mentioned explicitly so far, Badische Stahlwerke, in particular, could be impacted as it conducts most incoming scrap supply and outgoing deliveries by water on the Rhine.
Meanwhile, Tata Steel Nederland (TSN) tells Kallanish it has phased out regular transport via the Danube River. “We have ceased using it as a routine shipping route till regular water levels will return and shipping over the river is once again a viable option,” a spokesman writes in a statement. For deliveries to Central and Eastern Europe, the company has established rail-based transport routes.
“We have invested significant effort over the past several years in strengthening the resilience of the TSN transport network,” he says. TSN has developed alternative transport routes and enabled modal shifts to rail, alongside the existing waterway network. “As a result, the extreme drought so far had only limited impact on the TSN transport network. However, with drought conditions expected to persist over the coming weeks, it is anticipated they will eventually begin to affect the transport network operations,” he concludes.
