Low water levels on River Rhine impacts European petrochems
Logistics are adversely impacted by Rhine levels, and are on a week-long record low. However, more rainfall from the previous weekend was a silver lining, bringing slow recovery to water levels on Tuesday, said WSV and The German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) on Friday.
Currently pegged at 30 cm at the Kaub chokepoint, the Rhine is set to reach 41 cm, according to the latest forecast. With premium payments applying from 140 to 150 cm at Kaub, a quick elimination of transport issues is not in sight though.
Meanwhile, operations at a number of petrochemical plants within Europe remain curtailed as they struggle to source raw materials and push out their products to buyers. In addition to the force majeures on a number of products out of BASF's Ludwigshafen site, companies such as Covestro, OXEA and Shell are also monitoring production levels at the German plants on a daily basis.
European steam crackers were also mulling a possibility of trimming run rates amid inability to source sufficient naphtha and LPG.
