• The “Focus on” chapter deals with Austria, where 48% of goods transport on inland waterways was made up of agricultural products, iron ore and scrap metal in 2019. Petroleum products had a share of 17%.
• The modal split share of IWT in the multimodal Danube corridor (road, rail, river) is the highest for imports from Austria’s eastern neighbouring countries. Within this corridor, Danube traffic reaches a modal share of 27% for cross-border import traffic from the east.
• Passenger transport on Austrian inland waterways is composed of cruise traffic, day trip excursions on the Danube and on lakes. Cruise traffic on the Austrian Danube is a fast-growing business, with a cruise trips growth rate of 80% between 2010 and 2019. The day trip excursions growth rate on the Austrian Danube was 9% between 2010 and 2019. Both segments suffered during the first half of 2020, as turnover figures confirm.
AUSTRIAN INLAND PORTS’ WATERSIDE TRAFFIC
- Import traffic plays an important role for IWT in Austria. While agricultural products are mainly imported into (43%) or transiting (50%) through Austria, iron ore has an import share of almost 100%. It is mainly delivered by upstream transport from the Lower and Middle Danube region, and its destination is the steel industry in Linz (see also ports figures). Within the Danube corridor, the river Danube reaches a modal split share of 27% for cross-border import traffic from the eastern direction (modal share within road, rail and IWT).
- Within transit traffic, the modal split share of the Danube is also higher for upstream traffic (12%) than for downstream traffic (3%). For export traffic, the Danube’s share is again higher for the eastern trading route (13%) than for the western route (5%).
| Port | Waterside traffic 2019 in million tonnes |
|---|---|
| Linz (voestalpine steel port)* | 2.696 |
| Vienna | 1.227 |
| Enns | 0.779 |
| Linz (public port) | 0.665 |
| Krems | 0.370 |
* The voestalpine steel port is the port of the Austrian steel company voestalpine AG
FIGURE 1: WATERSIDE PORTS TRAFFIC IN THE LARGEST AUSTRIAN INLAND PORTS 2008-2019 (IN MILLION TONNES) *
Source: viadonau
* In 2019 these ports represented 82.4% of all waterside ports traffic in Austria.
TABLE 1: WATERSIDE PORT THROUGHPUT IN DANUBE COUNTRIES, Q1 2020 COMPARED TO Q1 2019
| Country | Q1 2019 in million t | Q1 2020 in million t | Rate of change in % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Romanian ports | 6.212 | 6.668 | +7.3 |
| Serbian ports | 2.662 | 1.845 | -30.7 |
| Austrian ports | 2.016 | 1.709 | -15.2 |
| Hungarian ports | 1.526 | 1.597 | +4.7 |
| Ukrainian ports | 1.569 | 1.278 | -18.5 |
| German ports | 0.899 | 0.765 | -14.9 |
| Slovakian ports | 0.523 | 0.390 | -25.5 |
| Moldavian ports | 0.284 | 0.296 | +4.4 |
| Croatian ports | 0.137 | 0.190 | +38.7 |
Source: Danube Commission
German ports are the Danube ports in Germany. For Bulgarian ports, the data are partly missing and are therefore not comparable.
FIGURE 2: IWT ON THE AUSTRIAN DANUBE BY GOODS SEGMENT (IN MILLION TONNES), 2012-2019 *
Source: viadonau (several annual reports)
* Not shown are chemicals and coal due to very low numbers.
MODAL SPLIT SHARE OF IWT WITHIN CROSS-BORDER TRAFFIC IN THE AUSTRIAN DANUBE CORRIDOR (IN % OF ROAD, RAIL AND IWT) *
Sources: Austrian Institute for Regional Studies and viadonau
* Data for 2019
EX = Export traffic
IM = Import traffic
TR = Transit traffic
FACT SHEET IWT IN AUSTRIA – ANNUAL FIGURES
Source: CCNR analysis based on Eurostat data [sbs_na_1a_se_r2], [iww_go_atygo], [iww_go_actygo], [tran_hv_frmod], [iww_eq_loadcap], [iww_eq_age], viadonau (fleet data).
Notes on the factsheet: “Share in EU total” contains figures for the EU plus Switzerland and Serbia. #) In contrast to transport performance, for transport volume, a country-specific share cannot be calculated. *) The number of dry cargo vessels includes work vehicles and RoRo ships (source: viadonau).
The modal split indicator is defined as the percentage of inland waterway transport in total freight transport performance measured in tonne-kilometres. Inland freight transport modes include road, rail and inland waterways. Road transport takes into account the TKM made by trucks registered in foreign countries on Austrian territory, according to the new Eurostat methodology in the series [tran_hv_frmod].
PASSENGER TRANSPORT ON THE AUSTRIAN DANUBE
- The number of river cruise trips in Austria is measured on the basis of data collected at the lock of Aschach near Linz and at the lock of Vienna-Freudenau. While the number of trips represent ‘hard data’, the passenger numbers are partly estimated by viadonau based on an assumed average capacity utilisation of the vessels of 75%. According to these figures, the number of river cruise trips on the Austrian Danube increased by 80% between 2010 and 2019. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the figures for 2020 can be expected to be much lower than in previous years.
- Not only river cruise vessels, but also day trip vessels (liner services and non-scheduled services) are important on the Austrian Danube. Due to the absence of official figures, viadonau collects passenger numbers from companies. There are several companies active in liner services (including ferry services on the Danube) and in non-scheduled services (charter trips, thematic trips).
FIGURE 3: NUMBER OF RIVER CRUISE TRIPS AND NUMBER OF CRUISE PASSENGERS ON THE AUSTRIAN DANUBE *
Sources: viadonau, several annual reports
* Number of passengers is an estimation by viadonau.
FIGURE 4: NUMBER OF PASSENGERS IN LINER SERVICES ON THE AUSTRIAN DANUBE (IN 1000) *
Sources: viadonau, several annual reports
* Figures include ferry services.
