Due to congestion in inland areas and after Russia decided to cut natural gas supply, container transportation demand competed with coal demand, Europe's barge surcharge soared by 150%.

Europe's main barge operator Contargo announced that from September 1, it will increase the emergency surcharge (emergency surcharge) for every full or empty container shipped from 10 euros to 25 euros, which brings new pain to shippers facing a week of Rhine closure.

Contargo said: "In addition to the large number of existing problems in the harbor (ship delays, container reception restrictions, etc.), serious bottlenecks continue to affect our railway network and inland shipping services."

"Container barge transport has had to compete with coal and grain transport for limited capacity. The Rhine and its tributaries continued extremely low water levels have increased demand for additional ships and pushed prices to critical levels."

As rain pushed up the Rhine for the first time in a month, the Kaub section of the river reached 100cm and barge users experienced a brief respite.

However, a source said that this did not ease the congestion, because although more barges were moving after the river was closed, the capacity of many barges was basically underutilized. A barge owner said: "Before the low water level, a barge could transport nearly 5000 tons of cargo, but now the same cargo is scattered on three to four ships."

"Changing barges at inland terminals is usually a time-consuming operation. A 5000-ton barge usually takes about two days to transport. Now, the same amount of cargo will be transported by different ships, which takes about a week."

Container transportation also has similar problems. Many barges could carry 200 containers, but currently only 65.

The entire deep sea terminal also felt the impact, because the replacement of barges led to inefficiency, and cranes and workers were idle in the already "severely strained" market and berth capacity.

Barge alternatives remain limited, with rail capacity overbooked due to low water levels, while building work and train cancellations exacerbate congestion.

Contargo said it was trying to make up for the loss by creating additional capacity for barge users, but pointed out that barge transportation still "suffers from cargo hold shortage".

Sources said the shortage was not due to underutilization, but was driven by German demand for coal shipments, as Germany wants to prevent Russia from cutting off gas supplies.

Source: Search