A 1,660-tonne ship was forced to drop anchor due to engine failure, closing traffic between Sankt Goar and Oberwesel, river police said. “It’s a backup,” said a spokesman for the federal Waterways and Shipping Administration. “The berths are full all the way to Mainz.” Mainz is about 31 miles (50 km) southeast of Oberwesel. Upstream traffic was restored at 13:00 CET, the spokesman said, adding that it may take another two hours before downstream traffic is freed again. In March 2021 a huge cargo ship got stuck in the Suez Canal for six days, disrupting global shipping traffic. The chaos and backlog meant the journeys of hundreds of ships were delayed and some were forced to take the much longer route around the southern tip of Africa. Authorities stressed that the build-up in the Rhine on Wednesday was not caused by falling water levels, which have reached record lows in some places due to a lack of rain. Weeks of baking temperatures and scant rainfall have drained water levels in the river, Germany’s trade artery, causing shipping delays and pushing up transport costs. The disruption could knock half a percentage point off economic growth in Europe’s biggest economy this year, economists say. Rhine shipping authorities said they expect the situation to improve in the coming days as rain is forecast for the region and water levels could rise “by 50cm or more” by the end of next week. The water level at the Kaub benchmark was 34 cm (13.3 in) on Wednesday. Levels in the 30-35cm range are acceptable for shipping – if they are expensive and with high cargo losses so they don’t overburden ships.
