BASF puts new ship into service for low water on the Rhine

Chemical company BASF wants to use a new transport ship with a particularly shallow draft to prevent another production stop during extremely low water in the Rhine. The company presented the special ship "Stolt" on Friday at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen. According to the company, the dimensions of 135 meters by 17.5 meters are significantly larger than common ships on the Rhine, MarketScreener reported.

At medium low water, the transport capacity of around 2,500 metric tons is twice that of conventional inland vessels, it said. BASF transports 40 percent of the goods at its main site by ship. In the past, low water levels had led to temporary production stoppages in Ludwigshafen, resulting in high costs for BASF.

The lightweight ship is planned to transport important raw materials on the Rhine and has a "hydrodynamically optimized" hull as well as three electric motors and ten stainless steel tanks, it said. According to BASF, the "Stolt" has a maximum transport capacity of about 5100 tons.

The Rhine is considered an important transport route for bulk goods and container ships, and was already used by the Romans. For shipping on the international waterway, the Kaub gauge (Rhine-Lahn district) in particular is considered a needle's eye. The navigation channel is flatter at no other section of the Middle and Lower Rhine.

According to BASF, the new transport ship would still be able to pass this critical point with a cargo of 800 metric tons even at a water level of only 30 centimeters, which corresponds to a water depth of about 1.60 meters. This is significantly more than any other tanker available today, it said.

"Four years ago, following the unprecedented low water levels in the Rhine as a result of the 2018 drought, we began developing an innovative tanker for chemical products that can also sail at extremely low water levels and transport high payloads," Uwe Liebelt, plant manager at BASF's Ludwigshafen site, said according to a statement. The new flagship will secure supplies to customers and production sites, he added.

Last year, drought severely limited cargo ship business on the Rhine and other rivers in Germany. At times, only about 50 percent of the volume could be transported. On the Upper Rhine, for example, larger ships were unable to sail at certain points due to their usual drafts. The cargo, which would normally be transported by a freighter, had to be distributed among several inland waterway vessels depending on the water level.

The "Stolt" was built between 2021 and 2023, and a shipyard in China was chosen to build the hull "because it is one of the most experienced shipyards for the construction of larger ships with stainless steel tank linings," the chemical company said. The ship's conversion happened in Rotterdam. After test runs in April, the ship made its first loaded voyage for BASF at the end of April