Is a drying Rhine about to drag Germany back into economic stagnation?

Already last month, Thyssenkrupp Steel suspended shipping of raw materials to the western city of Duisburg with its own vessels.

And German chemical maker BASF said on Monday that, while it had maintained waterway transportation to date, isolated supply bottlenecks may occur if the current weather conditions persist.

“If the drought continues, it would place a further strain on the German economy, which is already in a very precarious state,” said Dirk Binding, an expert at Germany’s chamber of commerce and industry, DIHK.

(Reporting by Maria Martinez, Rene Wagner and Michael Hogan, additional reporting by Anastasiia Kozlova; Editing by Joe Bavier)