Danube
hard hit
EUROPEAN SHIPPERS fear it could be months before traffic resumes on the Danube after NATO bombing destroyed key Yugoslav bridges and halted traffic, and some say the industry may never fully recover. This is disastrous for operators who have exclusively focused on the Danube and it creates
surplus capacity elsewhere, said a spokesman at barge
company Mainchiffahrtsgenossenschaft (MSG) in Germany's south east. With ships paralysed and freight stranded, shippers face losses mounting into the millions of dollars. Experts say it would take months after the end of the conflict for Danube traffic to resume, if only for clearing the Danube of the wreckage of collapsed bridges. NATO air strikes since late March have collapsed bridges and split the
2 400 km waterway in Yugoslavia, bringing to a halt the riverway's normal 10 million tonnes of annual freight traffic and forcing a search for alternate routes.
