Category: Freight Rates

ARA barge market recap: mixed signals and steady freight in a logistically challenging week

By Lars van Wageningen, Research & Consultancy Manager

The past week in the ARA (Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp) barge freight market has been marked by a mix of strategic calm and logistical noise. From May 7 to May 12, Insights Global’s freight reports painted a picture of a market negotiating the dual pressures of terminal delays and diverging product demand, while still maintaining a relatively stable pricing environment.

1. Freight Stability Amid Fluctuating Fundamentals

Across the five days of reporting, ARA freight rates remained remarkably steady. While there were day-to-day rate adjustments on specific routes and products, the overall market tone was one of resilience rather than volatility.

  • Middle distillates experienced minor fluctuations, reflecting shifts in operational execution and barge availability.

  • Light ends, particularly gasoline and naphtha, showed stronger transactional consistency and kept rates buoyant.

Takeaway: The ARA market displayed maturity in its pricing behavior, reacting moderately to operational stressors without succumbing to major swings.

2. Light Ends Dominate Market Activity

The strongest momentum was observed in the light ends segment, with consistent volumes and transactional depth across routes:

  • From midweek onward, light ends consistently outpaced middle distillates in total traded volumes.

  • Finished gasoline and gasoline component shipments formed the backbone of this trend, showing robust demand as the summer season approached.

This demand differential also narrowed the historical spread between light ends and middle distillate freight rates.

Takeaway: ARA barge operators saw more action in gasoline logistics, highlighting the seasonal shift and refinery output alignment.

3. Persistent Logistical Bottlenecks at Terminals

A recurring theme throughout the week was the influence of terminal delays—particularly in Antwerp and Amsterdam—on freight negotiations and barge deployment.

  • Barge operators reported growing difficulties in planning and execution, with extended waiting times hampering day-to-day flexibility.

  • These delays added an invisible layer of cost and complexity, often limiting the number of new fixtures that could be concluded on any given day.

Takeaway: Infrastructure challenges are not only slowing operations but also muting market responsiveness. Freight deals were often shaped more by availability than by appetite.

4. Supply Constraints Cushion Against Demand Dip

Interestingly, while some freighters reported lower incoming requests, this was counterbalanced by limited availability of vessels ready for prompt loading. The result was a functional equilibrium that helped:

  • Maintain upward momentum in middle distillate rates on certain days (notably May 8).

  • Keep light ends rates stable despite an increase in cargo availability and fixture activity.

Takeaway: Even in the face of reduced demand, tight supply dynamics kept rates from softening significantly—underscoring the importance of barge positioning in short-sea logistics.

5. Weekends Bring Volume, Not Volatility

The week closed with a healthy volume of fixtures, particularly in the light ends category. Despite this, the market did not see large price adjustments—indicating that supply and demand are reasonably well-aligned for now.

  • Friday (May 9) and Monday (May 12) were both busy in terms of concluded deals, but neither saw dramatic shifts in price levels.

  • Freight rates on high-traffic corridors like Rotterdam–Antwerp and Ghent–Amsterdam held firm.

Takeaway: The freight market may be bracing for change, but for now, it’s moving with caution and control.

Conclusion: Operational Efficiency Over Opportunism

This past week in the ARA barge market showcased a logistics-driven equilibrium, where freight rates served more as a reflection of operational constraints than speculative price swings. For industry professionals, the key signals to monitor going forward will be:

  • Terminal throughput normalization, which could unlock more flexible freight supply.

  • Seasonal shifts in product demand, especially for motor fuels.

  • How operators balance vessel availability with reliability concerns.

In a climate where logistical execution increasingly determines commercial outcomes, staying close to the market pulse through platforms like Insights Global’s Barge INSIGHTS will be critical for forward planning.

Rhine freight market outlook: A week of fluctuating waters and stable strategies

By Lars van Wageningen, Research & Consultancy Manager

Over the past week, the Rhine barge freight market has demonstrated a delicate balance between operational resilience and environmental volatility. Insights Global’s daily freight reports from May 7 to May 12 reveal a market where water levels, logistical challenges, and booking behaviors shaped a nuanced trading environment. Below, we explore the main developments and what they signal for barge operators and traders moving forward.

1. Market Stability Masking Tactical Adjustments

At a glance, rates remained relatively stable throughout the week for most destinations, with only marginal day-to-day adjustments. However, a deeper look shows that this stability is underpinned by a series of tactical decisions by both importers and barge operators.

  • Early in the week, lower freight rates—particularly driven by a short-lived wave of higher water levels at Maxau—encouraged opportunistic bookings.

  • Later in the week, negotiations often stalled due to uncertainty about draft limitations as water levels began to recede again, affecting loaded volumes and contributing to more cautious planning.

Takeaway: The apparent calm belies a market where participants are carefully timing their engagements based on short-term hydrological shifts and terminal availability.

2. Water Levels and Freight Sensitivities

Water levels along key measuring stations like Kaub and Maxau remained a central concern. After a brief increase, forecasts indicated a consistent downward trend by week’s end, particularly at Kaub, where the draft is a critical factor for larger barges.

  • Water draft limitations directly impacted loadable volumes, which in turn influenced freight rates due to reduced economies of scale.

  • The variability in draft conditions contributed to a widening of rate differentials, especially for long-haul routes into Switzerland, where rate adjustments became more pronounced.

Takeaway: In a river system like the Rhine, where operational efficiency hinges on water depth, even minor fluctuations can result in noticeable shifts in freight economics.

3. Terminal Delays and Logistical Constraints

While ARA port congestion showed some signs of easing at the beginning of the week, significant waiting times persisted in key hubs like Amsterdam and Seatank Antwerp. As the weekend approached, new bottlenecks were reported in Bottrop and Gelsenkirchen, further complicating scheduling.

  • These delays continued to disrupt vessel turnaround and limited the availability of tonnage for fresh bookings.

  • The resulting uncertainty discouraged some participants from engaging in new freight deals, even when rates appeared attractive.

Takeaway: Port performance remains a critical external factor affecting freight market fluidity, and its ripple effect on pricing and availability should not be underestimated.

4. Basel: The Outlier Destination

Among all destinations, Basel stood out for its notable rate movements. Midweek saw a moderate correction, but by Monday, deals for Basel exhibited higher average values again, likely in response to reduced loading capacity caused by the river’s decreasing depth.

  • The week closed with Basel as the only destination with a marked uptick in rates, contrasting with the general trend of flat or softened pricing elsewhere.

Takeaway: Basel continues to act as a barometer for upstream logistical strain, often amplifying the effects of hydrological and operational constraints seen elsewhere on the Rhine.

5. A Week Defined by Selective Activity

With only a handful of deals concluded daily—ranging from four to eight across the week—the overall market was relatively quiet in transactional terms, but not inactive in strategic positioning.

  • Buyers focused on securing volumes ahead of the summer season, while barge owners looked for windows of improved loading efficiency.

  • Freight rates for gasoil and gasoline showed some directional divergence depending on product-specific demand and route characteristics.

Takeaway: Despite low transaction volumes, the week reflected a market in motion—quietly reshaping itself under the pressures of seasonality, river conditions, and infrastructure reliability.

Looking Ahead

As we move deeper into May, attention will remain firmly fixed on Rhine water levels and terminal throughput performance. For barging professionals, the key lies in maintaining flexibility—both in routing and in scheduling—to navigate this complex matrix of variables. In this dynamic environment, being well-informed is not just advantageous—it’s essential. As always, Insights Global continues to monitor and interpret these movements to support smarter, faster, and more resilient decisions in liquid bulk logistics.

Covid-19 and the impact on the Market Outlook and Oil terminals

Even though the Covid-19 pandemic is still in full swing, it is safe to say that the corona-virus has had a profound impact on nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Besides the more visible effects on public health, society, and transportation, Covid-19 also sent a shockwave through the global economy. 

Even though the Covid-19 pandemic is still in full swing, it is safe to say that the corona-virus has had a profound impact on nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Besides the more visible effects on public health, society, and transportation, Covid-19 also sent a shockwave through the global economy. 

This economic shockwave also had its effects on tank terminals: As soon as the true scope of the Covid-19 pandemic became apparent, the oil market shifted from a backwardated market into a deep contango. Needless to say, this contango immediately led to a significant increase in demand for tank storage. Currently, the commercial occupancy rates at oil tank terminals are very high, and as a result, tank storage rates have increased by 20-30%.

This presents a somewhat unique situation for the tank terminal market. On the one hand, high occupancy rates and increased tank storage rates have a very positive impact on the short-term profitability of oil terminals. However, the consumption of oil products has seen a sharp decline and will takes years to recover fully.

What will this mean for the tank terminal market? At Insights Global, we continuously calibrate our Advanced Tank Terminal Market Model against shifts in the market. Our algorithms take into account macroeconomic trends like oil prices, taxes, trade costs, and interest costs, and (petro)chemical factors like trade flows, logistics, and storage rates. Based on the latest economic developments, we have also incorporated the Corona effect in our forecasting models.

Even though the V-shaped consumption curve (sharp decline followed by a sharp increase) for oil products seems already behind us, we expect it will take five years for consumption levels to normalize fully. Jet-kero consumption is hit especially hard by the Corona-crisis, with an initial reduction of up to 95%. This slow recovery is not only caused by the impending economic recession, but also by the change of habits like working from home and replacing in-person meeting by online meetings.

While the current focus is – understandingly so – on the impact of Covid-19 on the oil market, other essential factors like the electrification of road transport, reverse dieselization of European passenger cars, and IMO 2020 regulation for bunker fuels will also play a key role in the tank terminal market. Naturally, the impact of these events is also incorporated in our Advanced Tank Terminal Market Model.

Having access to accurate, up-to-date oil storage rates is crucial to make the right business decisions.

With our Global Oil Storage Rate Report, you’ll gain access to the single and only authoritative source of storage rate information available worldwide. It will provide you with transparency on price levels in global tank storage markets regularly, so you are always in the know and can set the right ask and bid prices for your storage.

Download your FREE Sample Report now and discover what information you could have at your fingertips each quarter.

The impact of ARA barge transport on the feedstock within the petrochemical sector.

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Naphtha is an intermediate hydrocarbon liquid stream derived from the refining of crude oil. It is in the ARA region mostly used as a gasoline blending component as feedstock within the petrochemical sector. Other important feedstocks for the petrochemical sector include ethane, propane and methane. The petrochemical sector is responsible for producing various materials such as plastic, paints, solvents, fibres and raw materials for pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors.
The ARA-region, or Amsterdam – Rotterdam – Antwerp region is an area in The Netherlands and Belgium where various coastal and inland ports are interconnected and act as a global hub. Apart from the large ports Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp it includes Flushing, Ghent, Terneuzen and Moerdijk as other relevant ports. All these ports lie in the delta of various rivers, like the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, which flow into the North Sea and could be seen as gateway of the European continent. Hinterland markets are connected to global markets via these seaports, in particular the vast hinterland of German industrial centres and population. The river Rhine, Scheldt and Meuse enable barge transport to and from these ports to inland markets, which give the market its unique attractiveness and improves the position of the hub in the worldwide trade flows. When we take a closer look at the feedstock prices we can observe that naphtha is the most expensive feedstock. In the image below you can see the historical monthly petrochemical feedstock prices from 2013 till 2018.

Although naphtha is the most expensive feedstock, it is the most used feedstock in the ARA region of all the substitutes mentioned above. There are various factors influencing this, but in this article we focus solely on the barge transport. As we have established earlier the Rhine has a unique position as being an important route for the transport of liquid bulk across different Western European countries. It is one of the world’s most frequented inland waterways. In Europe, there are more than 13.500 vessels offering inland freight transport services (dry cargo, tanker cargo and push & tug vessels) with a total loading capacity of 17 Mio tonnes. About 76% of the European fleet comes from Rhine countries. Source : Inland Navigation Europe. Tankers account for +- 15% of the total inland fleet.

Of the liquid bulk market, according to PJK’s interntional numbers you can see in the image below a comparison of the number of inland tankers showing that the clean (including chemical) tankers are far more dominant compared to gas tankers. While there are currently more gas tankers under construction, the same accounts for clean tankers. Clean tankers under construction are also bigger in terms of DWT, up to 10,000 DWT.

As mentioned before, naphtha is a liquid hydrocarbon mixture, which means it should be transported in double hull tanker, mainly to prevent cargo from leaking due to its hazardous nature. With regard to ethane and propane it is different as these are gases, and therefore have to be transported in special gas tankers, which are often fabricated with triple hulls and equipped with circular tanks. At the moment there are far more double hull tankers available in the market compared to the gas tankers, increasing supply of transport possibilities. Therefor the transport of naphtha is economically more feasible and accessible, despite the higher product costs.  Another reason for the high usage of naphtha in the region is the excess components received after cracking naphtha. These residues are used in the gasoline blending market, which holds a key position in the ARA and provide more usages of the excess valuable components like for example isomerate, raffinate, toluene and xylene. As you can see a lot of factors influence the petrochemical market. Are you struggling to connect the dots of the petrochemical side of the cluster? We can then provide you with our ARA Petrochemical Tank Storage report, where we aim to shed some light on complex subjects by unravelling trends and themes that underlie current markets relevant for the ARA cluster and by giving an outlook for future states of these petrochemical markets.  
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The contents of this article from Insights Global has been written with the greatest possible care. However, Insights Global cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information. The content of Insights Global blog publications therefore are not legally binding. Insights Global accepts no liability which might arise from the content of its blog.

Insights from Lars – comparing ARA and Rhine freight rates over the summer.

Freight rates in both the ARA region as well as on the Rhine remained strong, supported by increasing demand and the ongoing low water levels, which are hampering intakes. Freight rates for Rhine based destinations have not only risen for Middle and Upper Rhine destinations, where loaded volumes are contracted by low water levels up pegel Kaub, but also destinations in the German Ruhr area are highely affected. The difference between ARA-routes like Cross Harbor transports, Antwerp – Amsterdam and Rhine based tranports to Duisburg or Cologne are shown below.

In common situations, freight rates per mton are increasing in line with the voyage durations. The strong demand, and therefore increasing rates, to German markets are seen in the two graphs. Besides the absolute freight rates, a graph is made for indexed freight rates. The base rates of 1st of May 2018 are used for this calculation. After a slow late-spring, with low freight rates per ton, rates started to increase from July on. This has been accelerated by decreasing water levels and increasing demand for automotive fuels in hinterland markets. Rates to the Ruhr area, which are longer voyages compared to ARA-transports and are therefore priced at higher levels, saw a steady increase during the summer season. In August, a distinction is seen between demand in ARA, which was fading, and up the Rhine, which was supported by diesel transports.

Last month, rates up the Rhine increased further. Water levels continued to stay low and the market regained support from outages at various refineries in Germany. The maintenance season is causing less local supply and an unplanned outage at the Vohburg refinery in Bavaria is limiting product supply even further. Importers are looking at alternative outlets and more product needs to be imported to handle domestic demand. This is partly done over the Rhine, where barges are still coping with loading restrictions. Imports by barge have however increased by over 60% during September compared to the summer months, as was seen in PJK’s Rhine barge flow reports. By comparison, rates to Lower Rhine destinations have more than quadrupled in the last months. The revenue per barge is somewhat lower due to less loaded volumes, but are still elevated. This is also seen in the ARA, where supply of barges is lacking due to the higher demand in Germany.   The demand for importing product in the coming weeks could remain high since end consumers still need to stock up heating oils for the winter. This has been postponed last spring due to the backwardated market structure, so stock levels in hinterland are relatively low. With inadequate local production, low availability of barges and high freight rates, keeping track of the markets is vital in order to stay up to date.

If you would like more information about our products like the Rhine flow service, barge freight rates and daily reports, contact our sales department in the Netherlands at +31 850 66 25 00 or at info@insights-global.com.