Australia 'exposed' as Europe's most important trade river dries up

While the eyes of the world remain fixed on geopolitically charged blockades in the Strait of Hormuz, a bottleneck has been choking another of the globe's critical trade routes.

The Rhine River, once called the "highway of kings" due to its extraordinary geography that winds through six of Europe's wealthiest nations, is drying up.

In August, amid Europe's record-breaking heatwaves and drought, the water levels on the Rhine plunged so low the southern section of the river shut to boat traffic.

Thousands of tons of cargo were stranded. Freight businesses, many of them small, family-run operations, lost thousands of dollars a day.

"My fear is that this will become more frequent," said Torsten Stuntz, the captain and owner of the Stella Maris, a cargo ship moored just outside the south-western German city of Mainz.

Captain Stuntz has worked on the Rhine for almost 40 years and relies on steady summer trade to support himself and two deckhands.

He is now growing increasingly concerned about the viability of operating a ship on the inland artery.

"The problem of water levels is becoming more common," he said. "You could rely on the water from the upper Rhine over the summer months flowing down but this [water level] has just been getting less recently.

"It is extremely low this summer. We had something similar before in 2018. But it wasn't quite as low as it is now."

While the southern part of the Rhine has reopened, the water level is hovering at a dangerously low 25 centimetres.

To avoid hitting the riverbed, Captain Stuntz has had to reduce the amount of cargo he carries on board.

He usually transports crushed gravel, which is used in cement across Europe. To safely move it in the shallow water, he has had to slash the amount on his ship by more than 80 per cent — a hefty blow to his profit margins.

Other ships have also been forced to drastically scale back operations, leaving more than three-quarters of Europe's inland cargo stranded at docks along the Rhine.

The German government has amended regulations to allow trucks to move the stranded freight by road, but while ships can move up to 3,000 metric tonnes of cargo at a time, even large trucks can take only around 25 tonnes. 

They also have more impact on the environment.

"I believe that most people simply have no overview of what inland shipping really does and how important and sustainable it is," Captain Stuntz told the ABC, adding prolonged low water levels will have a crushing economic impact in Europe.

Earlier this year, a study by the Nature and Biodiversity Union in Germany described the lowering water levels as an "environmental catastrophe", estimating the river had lost 60 billion cubic metres of water in 20 years and warned constant shutdowns of the river would cost over a trillion dollars in lost trade by 2050.

Economist Thilo Schafer told German newspaper Bild last month that ongoing disruptions threatened to wreak havoc on Germany's economy.

"A prolonged disruption of navigability on the Rhine could completely stifle the tiny seed of growth we have," he said.

There are also fears it will have a global impact. The Rhine transports 285 million tonnes worth of freight every year to and from the port of Rotterdam, accounting for roughly 30 per cent of the major trade hub's freight.

While it's not clear how much of that has originated in or is destined for Australia, Vinh Thai, a professor of supply chain management at RMIT, said frequent closures of the Rhine would eventually affect the country.

"The Rhine is a case study in how climate change is affecting global trade," he said.

"We [Australia] are exposed to this. We export about $23 billion in value to Germany, a lot of that won't be transported on the Rhine, but if we can't use inland waterways like the Rhine then it will take more time [to transport it] and cost more."

Professor Thai said companies which export and import to Europe may have to reassess transportation methods.

The German-Australian chamber of commerce told the ABC while it had not yet heard of impacts to Australian-based importers or exporters, it expected to.

Beyond heavy industry, the river's crisis is also bruising the fragile economies of small communities. In recent decades, the historic route has seen a boom in river cruise ships carrying cashed-up tourists to the region's historic riverside villages.

In Kaub a tiny, picturesque German town nestled at one of the shallowest bottlenecks of the river, the economic fallout of the summer has been dire.

Because the Kaub section of the Rhine serves as the depth marker for the entire waterway — where ships are legally forbidden to travel further south if the water drops too low — tourist operators are choosing to steer clear.

Kaub's Mayor Bernd Vogt, 67, has lived in the town his entire life and told the ABC he was concerned by how empty the town was during the summer months, which is usually the busiest time of year.

"It is already a big problem for us because we suffer from it. The foreigners are staying out. Tourists are missing. That is a thing that is not so good," he told the ABC as he walked through the town, past empty shops and cafes.

"I cannot understand anyone who still says here today that climate change is not to blame. We all see that, we all know it, and now action must follow." 

Proposals are underway to introduce lightweight ships or even high-tech dredging systems to avoid major disruptions in future.

But there is a creeping sense of doom among river operators that Europe's highway of kings is at the mercy of a changing climate.