• Goods transport on the Rhine plays an important role for Switzerland. Around 25% of all mineral oil products imported by Switzerland are delivered on the Rhine.
• Passenger transport on European inland waterways is a sector where Switzerland plays an important role in Europe. This is reflected by high figures for employment and turnover, and by a high number of Swiss river cruise and day trip vessels.
INLAND WATERWAY FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN SWITZERLAND
DEVELOPMENT OF INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPORT IN THE SWISS RHINE PORTS IN BASEL
- The largest goods segment within waterside freight transport in the Swiss Rhine ports are mineral oil products, with an average share of 45% in the last ten years. Almost all mineral oil products handled in Basel are imports to Switzerland. The import direction accounted for 98.5% in 2021, 99.0% in 2020 and similarly high shares in previous years.
- Switzerland relies on several transport modes for importing crude oil and mineral oil products. The Rhine’s modal share within these imports was 24.6% in 2020 and 23.4% within the whole time-period from 2011 to 2020. Pipelines have the highest share with 36.7% in 2020. The reason is that crude oil is entirely imported by pipeline.
- In differentiating oil products further, it is seen that the Rhine reaches high modal shares for imports of diesel and heating oil.
- Around one out of two tonnes of diesel and heating oil that are imported by Switzerland cross the country’s borders on the Rhine. For gasoline, this ratio is one out of four tonnes (Rhine transport/total imports). For crude oil and other oil products, the modal share of the Rhine is low.
- The port of Basel is also an important place for waterside container handling. Container transport had reached a first peak in 2019, when more than 120,000 TEU were recorded as waterside container transport. The Covid crisis inflicted only a minor loss of 5% for container transport (level in 2020 compared to the level in 2019). In the year 2021, container transport recovered and attained a new record level with 121,046 TEU (+9.8% compared to 2020). The Swiss Rhine ports are investing in further container handling capacities to be able to handle the growing TEU volumes that are foreseen in the future.
FIGURE 1: YEARLY INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPORT IN SWISS RHINE PORTS (IN MILLION TONNES)
Source: Swiss Rhine ports
FIGURE 2: IMPORTS OF CRUDE OIL AND OIL PRODUCTS TO SWITZERLAND BY MODE OF TRANSPORT (IN %)
Source: CCNR analysis based on Avenergy Suisse
FIGURE 3: MODAL SHARE OF THE RHINE FOR IMPORTS OF CRUDE OIL AND OIL PRODUCTS TO SWITZERLAND BY TYPE OF PRODUCT (IN %)*
Source: CCNR analysis based on Avenergy Suisse
* Modal share of Rhine within all modes of transport (Pipeline, Rail, Rhine, Road, Air)
FIGURE 4: WATERSIDE CONTAINER TRANSPORT IN THE SWISS RHINE PORTS (IN TEU)*
Source: CCNR analysis based on Swiss Rhine ports
* Note: for the years 2014-2017, figures were corrected in order to take into account 20,000 TEU transshiped from trucks to railways.
FACT SHEET IWT IN SWITZERLAND – ANNUAL FIGURES
Sources: CCNR analysis based on Eurostat data [sbs_na_1a_se_r2], [iww_go_qnave], OECD short time indicators, Danube Commission (fleet data)
Notes on the factsheet:
‘Share in EU total’ contains figures for the EU plus Switzerland and Serbia.
#) In contrast with transport performance, for transport volume, a country-specific share cannot be calculated.
The modal split share is defined as the percentage of inland waterway freight transport performance (in TKM) within total land-based transport performance. Land-based freight transport modes include road, rail and inland waterways. The road freight activity is reported according to the territoriality principle, where international road freight transport data are redistributed according to the national territories of where the transport actually takes place. These principles are implemented in the Eurostat series [tran_hv_frmod].
