Jahresbericht 2009 - Gesellschaft für Maritime Technik eV

Flottenkommando Fakten und Zahlen 2009
1.6.8 Inland Navigation
Inland navigation and its transportation capacity is an important sector of maritime economy
as a whole. Germany is of outstanding importance in European inland cargo shipping. More
than 50% of the Western European waterways suitable for commercial inland shipping are
found in Germany. About 3.5% of the annual freight in the EU is transported via inland
waterways. Of this total, 70% was transported on the River Rhine system and 19.5% on the
Danube. Already today, inland navigation is the natural link in tri-modal traffic that connects all
European seaports and ensures access to the backland of the sea ports. 7,476 km of German
inland waterways connect the sea ports to some 250 German inland ports (public and industrial
ports) and the major industrial centers.
In 2008, some 246 million tons were moved by German inland waterway transport over a
total distance of 64 billion TKT. Here, the German domestic traffic dropped by 3.3% and
shipping to destinations abroad by 4.0%. On the other hand, the trans-border transport to
Germany has risen by 0.2% and achieved a share of almost 44% of all inland waterway
transports. This again shows the important distribution function of inland navigation for goods
from Dutch and Belgian sea ports in hinterland transportation, especially since the goods
transports in transit have risen by 0.6%. After years of continuous growth (with few exceptions),
container transport by inland vessels decreased by –3.7% to 2.05 million TEU in 2008 as
compared to 2.13 million TEU in 2007.
Cargo handling in the German inland waterways mainly takes place in the Rhine region and
its tributaries. 64.5% of the freight (181.4 million tons) is handled via ports on the river Rhine,
followed by the Western German canal system at 12.4% (35.0 million tons). The Elbe region
followed a long way back with 8.3% and 23.3 million tons. The industrial ports take a 30%
average annual share in goods handling.
The inland vessels sailing under the German flag could only partially benefit from the
transportation volume in freight traffic. In 2008, German inland vessels transported 81.969
million tons of cargo. This is about the same figure as in 2006, but compared to the previous year
it is a 2.6% drop. At 21.085 billion TKT, the traffic volume in 2008 was about the same as in the
previous year. As a result of the declining total traffic volume, the share of German inland
vessels went slightly up.
The Dutch inland shipping companies remain competitor number one, having a fleet that is
about twice as large as the Germans’ in terms of number and load capacity. Since 1994 the
Netherlands have been the leading inland shipping nation on German waterways. In 2008, their
share in the carriage of goods was 53.3% (131.0 million tons), followed by Germany at 33.4%,
Belgium at 17.5 million tons and a share of approximately 7.1% in goods traffic on German
inland waterways.
At the end of 2008, there were 4,790 inland vessels for goods and passenger transport in
Germany, including 1,944 dry-cargo ships, 457 tankers/lighters, 1,021 passenger ships with a
capacity for 239,435 passengers and 441 tugboats and towboats.
1.6.9 Fishery and Fishing Industry
The German fisheries policy is fully integrated into the EU Common Fisheries Policy. The aim is
to secure the use of living aquatic resources under sustainable economic, ecological and social
conditions. From fishing regulations to processing and marketing, the German fishing industry is
thus subject to mutually determined regulations that are binding for all member states. The
regulations issued in the scope of the EU Fishing Policy (CFP) mainly concern conservation of the
fish stocks, promotion of competitive fisheries and stabilization of the markets for fishery
products and thus have lasting effects on the German fishery sector.
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