Fall 2017 – CCNR publishes its market insight 
The new quarterly report on European inland navigation, written by the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (CCNR) in partnership with the European Commission, has just been published.
The Fall 2017 Market Insight provides a raft of information on the situation in which inland navigation finds itself at the beginning of 2017.
The market observation and market insight are respectively annual and quarterly publications by the CCNR dealing with the European inland navigation market.
Executive summary
A few elements confirm the improving economic conditions in Europe: exports keep rising, EU industrial production increased by 1.9% in Q1 2017 compared to Q1 2016, and building sector activity is
progressing in most of the inland waterway transport (IWT) countries in Europe. Nevertheless, the IWT
volumes decreased during the first quarter of 2017.
Although the situation had recovered compared to the end of 2016, the total transport performance on the Traditional Rhine decreased by 12% in Q1 2017 compared to Q1 2016, and on the Danube the reduction was 22%. This can mainly be explained by low water conditions at the beginning of 2017, and by ice periods that strongly affected Danube navigation at the beginning of the year. However, the evolution is not homogenous all over Europe.
In particular, inland navigation goods transport increased in Belgium at the beginning of 2017, and this increase was strongly supported by container transport that continued its strong upward trend in Belgium, with an increase of almost 20%.
Full report (EN-NL-DE-FR) can be viewed directly at www.inland-navigation-market.org.