Low Rhine Water Levels Trigger Chemical Force Majeure

Low water levels at the Kaub chokepoint on the Rhine River have severely disrupted commercial shipping between the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub and industrial centers in southern Germany, eastern France, and Switzerland. Freight rates from the hub to Karlsruhe surged from €45/t to €215/t as water levels dropped below the 77-cm threshold required for normal traffic.

LyondellBasell and Covestro have declared force majeure at their respective Wesseling and Dormagen plants. The shipping crisis has constrained chemical production affecting 3.1 million tonnes per year of ethylene capacity across sites operated by BASF, INEOS, LyondellBasell, and Shell. The Miro refinery in Karlsruhe has been forced to rely on road trucks to move fuel, while Strasbourg, France, has experienced localized gasoline shortages.

A broader systemic crisis has been avoided because European crackers are operating at approximately 70% capacity and fuel demand remains weak. However, the disruption remains significant for the BASF complex in Ludwigshafen, which moves 40% of its goods by river.