Kaub is the middle Rhine bottleneck. It dictates how much cargo a barge can load.
Today, the river hit 25 cm, matching the all-time low set in October 2018 and falling even lower than during the 2022 energy-crisis drought. It is not just Kaub, but all the gauges we track.
Drought Levels Already in July
Usually, we do not see water levels this low until autumn. The Rhine’s low-water season has historically been September to November.
Now, we are already seeing drought levels in July.
Barges are sailing around 20% full, Rotterdam–Karlsruhe freight has more than tripled from approximately €45 to €150 per tonne since late June, and coal is stacking up at ARA ports with no way inland.
Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg News and Montel.
River Levels Now Available on the Volt Platform
We have just added River Levels to the Volt Power Analytics platform.
We show daily gauge data for six key Rhine stations, each with computed normals and the full historical minimum–maximum range. The data is downloadable and available through our API.
Let us know if you would like to become a beta customer.
Could Kaub Break the 2018 Record?
It will be interesting to see how low Kaub goes this year.
In every year for which we have data, the Rhine continued falling into autumn. Unless we get a very wet start to autumn, we think the 2018 record could be broken.
