SHIPS of the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company are carrying less cargo than usual due to low water levels on the river.
As long as Russia blockades Odessa ports, the Danube region remains the only available way to the Black Sea for Ukrainian grain exports.
The middle and lower reaches of the Danube have been closed to navigation since July 25 due to falling water levels.
‘As compared to operations in routine conditions, the weight of cargo carried by vessels dropped by a third – from 1,600-1,500 tonnes on average to 1,000 tonnes,’ said company general director Dmytro Moskalenko.
‘This situation has caused our vessels to carry smaller cargoes, which negatively affects the volumes of cargo traffic,’ said Mr Moskalenko.
Water levels have dropped several metres as compared to July 2021. Whereas Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company vessels’ load draft was 2.1 metres last week, this week it was a mere 1.8 metres in the direction of Constanta, Romania.
The Danube River’s low-water season usually peaks in September-October, but has already dropped because of the absence of rain in the area of the Danube River and its main tributaries (Sava, Drava, Tisza, and Morava) due to this year’s abnormal heatwave in Europe.
