London (Platts)--28Jan2011/647 am EST/1147 GMT
The availability of physical barges in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region is still being hit by ongoing disruption on the Rhine at the Lorelei Point in Germany, the site where the barge Waldhof capsized on January 13, trading sources said Friday. Some barges are stuck on the upper Rhine with downstream shipping closed, which has led to a shortage of barges in ARA, sources said. "They are blocked on the other side...it is a bit more difficult to find barges," a barge trader said. An ARA barge operator said: "Prices are going up, so if you do the calculations [based on the current price] we estimate that there are about 100 barges missing at least." Upstream shipping on the Rhine at the Lorelei Point resumed for a few hours this morning until around 13:00 time (1200 GMT), the authorities said in a statement Friday. In the afternoon, traffic will be restricted both on the river as well as on the two highways running along each side of the Rhine and on the railway running along the downstream right bank at the site of the accident.--Daniel Colover, daniel_colover@platts.com--Stefan Naidu, stefan_naidu@platts.com --Elza Turner, elza_turner@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Oilgram News. See more information at http://bit.ly/OilgramNews