Galetin: Drought Jeopardizing Danube Waterways Down Which Most of Export of Grains and Import of Coal Is Done

The drought, which has reduced the water levels, is leading to a reduced power generation, but also jeopardizes waterways, primarily the Danube one, down which the most of the export of grains and the import of coal is done, the agri-economic analyst Zarko Galetin stated today.

Galetin said for TV N1 that, due to the drought, 16 hydropower plants in Serbia, which produce 38% of the total electrical energy, had also reduced their production by a third.

– If this kind of a drought period continues, no scenario is excluded. There is a danger of all waterways on the Danube being blocked. We will have a huge problem – Galetin said.

He pointed out that Serbia was supplied with coal by the upstream flow of the Danube and with iron by the downstream flow, down which the export of grains was also done, more precisely, through the Romanian port of Constanta.

– Over a million tons of goods, whether wheat or corn, equivalent to a thousand barges with a load-bearing capacity of a thousand tons, pass through Constanta. Nearly a half of the export of corn and one third of wheat passes through Constanta. The Smederevo steel mill depends on the import of iron from the Ukrainian port – said Galetin and added that, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “the price of transport increased 50%, because the goods are exported to the Black Sea, a risky area”.

Regarding the situation on the rivers, even the largest ones, such as the Danube and the Sava, from which sand depositions are removed from the most critical points in order for them to remain navigable due to the low water levels, Galetin said that “the whole situation seems apocalyptic”.

Železara Smederevo d.o.o.

Železara Smederevo

Smederevo steel mill

Žarko Galetin

export of grains

power generation

export to Romanian Port of Constanta

import of iron