Low water levels push up shipping costs on Europe's rivers amid heatwave

The Guardian

08-07-2025

Low water levels after heatwaves and drought are limiting shipping on some of Europe's biggest rivers including the Rhine and the Danube and pushing up transport costs.
As much of Europe swelters in hot temperatures, water levels in its main rivers have fallen. This is affecting shipping along the Rhine – one of Europe's key waterways – south of Duisburg and Cologne in Germany, including the choke point of Kaub, forcing vessels to sail about half full.
Rainfall over the weekend caused only a moderate rise in water levels, according to commodity traders.
Shallow water has prompted ship operators to impose surcharges on freight rates to compensate for vessels not sailing fully loaded, increasing costs for cargo owners. Traders told Reuters that loads that are normally transported on one vessel were being carried on several barges.
Most of the nearly 200m tonnes of cargo shipped on German rivers each year – from coal to car parts, grains and food to chemicals – is transported on the Rhine, the second longest river in central and western Europe after the Danube.
Unusually low water levels on the Danube in Hungary are affecting shipping and agriculture, as temperatures peaked at 35C in Budapest last week. This means cargo ships must leave behind more than half of their loads and can only operate at 30-40% capacity, Attila Bencsik, the deputy president of the Hungarian Shipping Association, said.
In Poland, the water level in the Vistula, the country's longest river, has fallen to its lowest ever recorded level in Warsaw as temperatures stayed above 30C for a prolonged spell and there has been little rainfall.
Three years ago, German companies faced supply bottlenecks and production problems after a drought and heatwave led to unusually low water levels on the Rhine.
That summer, the French energy supplier EDF had to temporarily reduce output at its nuclear power stations on the Rhône and Garonne rivers as heatwaves pushed up their temperatures, restricting its ability to use their water to cool the plants.
More rain is forecast in Germany in the coming days, which could raise water levels.
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The lack of rainfall is causing problems elsewhere. In Yorkshire in the UK, water reservoirs have plunged. Data released by Yorkshire Water, which has more than 5 million customers, showed levels had dropped further from 63% recorded in May to 55.8% in June – significantly below the average (81.9%) for this time of year.
Reservoirs are close to half full, with most of the summer still ahead. Yorkshire's reservoirs have been declining since late January amid the driest spring for 132 years in the county and England's warmest June on record. During warm weather, water usage usually increases, which further affects reservoir levels. Customers used almost 1.5bn litres on 30 June – 200m litres above Yorkshire Water's typical daily output.
Another UK water company, Severn Trent, has urged its 8 million customers to be 'mindful of their water use'. It said there was less water in reservoirs and rivers and while there was no plan for a hosepipe ban, it remained an option.