The Rhine flows 760 miles
starting in Switzerland
and goes through Germany
into the Netherlands,
draining into the North Sea.
It's the top shipping route
for intercontinental
transportation of agricultural
and petrochemical products:
Germany's WSV rivers authority
said they're powerless in preventing
the river from drying out.
"The Rhine is a natural river,"
said Hans-Heinrich Witte,
president of WSV.
"There are limits to what
we can do to keep it open
as an industrial waterway."
Recent hot temperatures
in Germany have led to
low water levels on the
Rhine river, an important
shipping route.
This could decrease
German manufacturing
and disrupt supply chains,
like it did in 2018.
Water levels on the Rhine
last summer made some parts
of it unnavigable:
This disrupted supply chains
in Germany's industrial heartland
that use the river for shipping.
Reuters recently reported
some parts of the Rhine
are now impassable for
fully loaded cargo ships.
"Approximately
80% of all goods
that are transported
via domestic water transport
go along the River Rhine."
Thus, it is Germany's
most important waterway,"
Robert Lehmann,
an economist at Germany's
Ifo Institute research center,
told CNBC
"Coal, oil, and gas or chemical
products are transported
with a much higher intensity:
10% to 30%."
"These are the main goods
at the beginning
of important
value-added chains, thus,
low water levels
at the River Rhine
can immediately lead
to restrictions
in industrial production."
Germany's economy
is already dealing with
weak industrial production
Holger Schmieding,
chief economist at
Berenberg Bank, told CNBC
that shipping on the river
was halted last fall, and
that caused the production
'of German chemicals
and pharmaceuticals
to plummet by 10%
from September
to November
and damaged
the overall economy.
