The decline of German inland shipping continued last year. Last year, ships transported fewer goods than ever since reunification.
The transport volume on German waterways fell to a record low last year. A total of 172 million tons of goods were transported on inland waterways, as the Federal Statistical Office announced today. That was 5.9 percent less than 2022 with around 182 million tons.
“Against the background of a weak economy, the historically low previous year’s value was once again undershot and the lowest value since German unification in 1990 was reached,” said the statisticians. Compared to 1990, freight transport shrank by 25.9 percent, compared to 2019 – the year before the outbreak of the Corona crisis – by 16.3 percent.
Fewer more cross-border Traffic
The transport volume in purely domestic German traffic fell by 4.8 percent to 42.5 million tons. Cross-border traffic fell even more sharply, by 7.3 percent to 119.2 million tons. While shipments abroad (42.0 million tons) recorded a decline of 4.0 percent, receipts from abroad (77.3 million tons) fell above average at 9.0 percent.
“This is due, among other things, to declines in seaport hinterland traffic, i.e. the transport of goods to and from seaports,” explained the statisticians. Transit traffic, which is less important in terms of volume, increased by 8.5 percent last year with a transport volume of 10.0 million tons.
Burglary at Coal transport
While most groups of goods recorded noticeable declines, transport of liquid mineral oil products bucked the trend and increased by 3.1 percent. On the other hand, there was a very significant drop in coal transports of minus 27.9 percent, which in 2022 had benefited from the increased use of coal to generate electricity as a result of the energy crisis.
In addition to the economic weakness, German inland shipping was burdened by low water levels last year, as in the previous year: at the bottleneck in Kaub near Koblenz, the Rhine water level was only at 126 centimeters in June – ships can pass through even at water levels below 135 centimeters can no longer be fully loaded there.