Frankfurt (Germany) (AFP) - Dwindling water levels on Germany’s big rivers, worsened by heat and drought, are raising fears that badly constrained riverboat cargo traffic may deal another blow to the struggling economy.

The Rhine riverbed has partially dried up near steelmaker Thyssenkrupp’s blast furnaces in Duisburg, a picture of how the low water levels pose a new challenge for German industry.

The mighty waterway also winds past car factories, chemical plants and big river ports as it passes through the industrial heartland of Europe’s biggest economy and takes cargo all the way to ports in the Netherlands.

Shallow water is imposing tighter limits on how much cargo can float down the river – sending prices up for freight, and heaping pressure on the government to act.

New Transport Minister Steffen Bilger met in Bonn on Thursday with industrial executives, shipping companies and port bosses to discuss the unfolding crisis.

“If you look at the Rhine, the Danube or the Elbe currently, you see the problem,” Bilger told reporters at the meeting, referring to Germany’s three longest rivers.

“Where normally ships are carrying thousands of tonnes of goods, today we see bare sandbanks,” Bilger said, adding that “ships are only able to carry a fraction of their cargo, if at all”.

In normal times the Rhine handles around 80 percent of Germany’s inland waterway traffic, said Rico Luman, an economist at ING.

Every year, some 285 million tonnes of goods travel along the river.

Speaking alongside Bilger, the head of Germany’s domestic shipping association Jens Schwanen said the dry spell had come early and 2026 could turn out to be “a once-in-a-century event”.

Schwanen said that it was important “to speed up in taking measures on the lower and middle reaches of the Rhine, where we have to deepen the navigable sections”.

- Industry feeling the pinch -

The port in Duisburg, in Germany’s steel-producing Ruhr region, has reported that vessel loading capacities have dropped to about one-third of their usual levels.

The lower loads have led to a shift of cargo toward smaller vessels, as well as rail and road transport.

In the oil sector, loads are sometimes capped at between 300 and 400 tonnes for 110-meter tanker barges, leading to a surge in the number of trips required.

That has driven up shipping rates, with prices hitting 200 euros ($230) per tonne this month for petroleum products shipped between Karlsruhe and the coastal ports of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp.

For German industrial producers the blow comes at a difficult time, as many are already suffering from high energy costs, stiff global competition and US tariffs.

Thyssenkrupp has turned to shallow-draft ships to keep raw materials and finished products moving on the river.

So too has chemicals giant BASF, which operates a massive production complex upstream from Duisburg in Ludwigshafen.

Speciality chemicals company Covestro said that shipping disruptions are affecting supply and production at certain cites.

And in the refining sector, Shell said it is making greater use of storage capacity and attempting to divert some shipments to rail, road, or pipelines.

- In need of a rainmaker -

Bilger said he is considering lifting a ban on truck traffic on Sundays and public holidays to pick up some of the transport load.

But road and rail transport face higher costs and other constraints, making replacing the heavily loaded river barges a tough and expensive challenge.

Germany faces a chronic shortage of truck drivers, and a fresh surge in fuel prices thanks to the ongoing Middle East war.

The country’s overstretched rail network, meanwhile, has long been the source of complaints.

ING economist Carsten Brzeski noted that a 2018 drought shaved an estimated 0.3 of a percentage point off German growth, and said that the economic impact could be more pronounced this year.

The lowest water levels on the Rhine normally do not come until September or October, Brzeski noted, but levels this week are already at unprecedented lows with little rain forecast.

Unless the German government can find a rainmaker, he quipped, the dry spell could be a tough blow to an economy that has finally returned to modest growth after a prolonged period of stagnation.