Europe dominates the world warterways scene with its river internal network formed by Rhine, Elbe, Scheda, Meuse, Seine, Rhone and Po.
A large traffic of goods by water also happens in northem European countries with ports built on the shores of lakes (Sweden and Finland)
Here are some significant numbers of fluvial transport in Europe:
The English channels bear boats weighing less than 75 tons at full load
The German channels, where the fluvial transport is more developed, bear boats up to 300 tons.
The Rhine is the most used river for trading and accommodates barges up to 300 ton .
The European region where the river trade is most developed are the Netherlands, especially in the towns of Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
The major European river ports are:
Rotterdam in Holland
Anversa in Belgium
Hamburg in Germany
The largest river port in Europe is Duisburg, in Germany. To it also have access the ocean-going ships. It tranships 40 million tons of goods every year, mainly iron, coal, oil and steel.
Duluth, in the USA, is the world's largest river port. It is in the trading system of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway
In Germany, in the North Rhine Westphalia area, a 700 km river network is active. The river connect towns such as Cologne, Dortmund, Duisburg and D端sseldorf
The Dutch ships host half of the river transport in the European Union.
20 – 30 km distance between a port to another are becoming more and more common in Europe, thanks to EU directives and incentives. So the ships travel the same route 4 or 5 times a day.
500 km is the minimum distance a ships have to travel in order to make a cost-effective transport.
Arianna Giulia Sara
Elisa Gloria