The new Market Insight (November 2021) on inland navigation in Europe was recently published by the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (CCNR). The report has three chapters:
1. Freight and passenger traffic on inland waterways
2. Operating conditions
3. Focus on Serbia

Market Insight provides us with relevant data and figures while discussing current developments of the market.

Transport performance on inland waterways in the EU has been adhering to a small and rather narrow recovery path since Q3 2020. Rhine countries experienced an overall increase of 1.0%, while Danube countries followed a more dynamic surge (+14.8%), thanks to growing grain transport. For the two largest IWT countries, Germany and the Netherlands, the result remained almost stable in Germany (-0.1%) while a small increase was observed for the Netherlands (+1.9%).

A differentiation by cargo segments for the Rhine reveals that dry cargo increased slightly, whereas liquid cargo had weaker results, comparing Q1 2021 to the same period the previous year. This was due to a reduction of petroleum products transport, reflecting the impact of the pandemic on the mobility sector. Freight rates for dry cargo and container transport have increased since Q3 2020, mirroring the recovery in transport demand. Freight rates for liquid cargo have not shown any recovery since this quarter. The reason is a structurally reduced mobility demand that reduces transport demand for liquid products.
Passenger transport still remained far below pre-pandemic levels in the first half year of 2021.

A special chapter of the report is dedicated to Serbia. Its IWW 2020 performance accounts for a share of 3.2% within transport performance in the EU (plus Switzerland, Serbia, Ukraine). The focus of IWT in Serbia lies in the transport of dry mass cargo. The modal split share of IWT within total land-based transport performance is 28.7%, making IWT a core transport mode in this Middle Danube country.

Click here! to read the full report.