Traffic on the world’ s busiest man made waterway, the Kiel Canal (NOK), dipped in late 2008 and figures for the year are expected to show the canal’ s first decline in years and one which will continue through 2009.
The number of ships using the 100 kms long canal, which links the North Sea and the Baltic, dropped by 10.9% in November, reversing increases of previous months and years.
NOK spokeswoman Claudia Thoma told MJ statistics for the whole year were not due until mid January. However she pointed to comments by Joerg Heinrich, head of the shipping department of Germany’s Wasser und Schiffahrtsdirektion Nord, which monitors traffic on the NOK.
He said ‘a halt in the canal’s high shipping growth rates can be expected’ in 2009 and added that ‘economic decline cannot be ruled out either’.
The comments came after the release of statistics, which showed that 3,368 ships passed through the canal in November, 9.5% or 412 fewer than the 3,780 vessels recorded in November 2007. Cargo volumes also dropped by 6.8% to 8.26m tons because of what was described as the ‘weakening economic situation’.
However, taken as a whole and up to November, 2008 was a good one for the Kiel Canal with transport volume at 99.2m tons compared to 90.8 million tons in the same period of 2007, an increase of 9.2%. Shipping volume also rose 6.7% before tumbling in November.
An optimistic Joerg Heinrich said despite the signs of decline, ‘the year just ended has clearly shown that the Kiel Canal continues to play a prominent role in sea transport between the west European seaports and the Baltic region’. He said that would not change and also predicted that economic downturn would not influence the decisions already taken to expand and improve the more than 100 year old canal.
