Water levels on the Rhine fell to the lowest point on record in early August 2026, cutting barge capacity into Germany's largest chemical clusters. The gauge at Kaub read 20 cm on 5 August, five centimetres below the previous record low set in 2018, according to PU Magazine International. Covestro reduced production at its Lower Rhine sites because raw materials could no longer be delivered in sufficient volume; the company states that more than 75% of the raw materials used by its European operations and over 30% of its finished products are transported on the river. On 7 August it declared force majeure on polyether polyols from its Dormagen site, a step reported by PUdaily and confirmed by Everchem Specialty Chemicals on 10 August.
The binding constraint at Dormagen is propylene oxide. According to that reporting, the site can only receive PO by ship, so a loss of navigable depth translates directly into lost polyol output rather than into a general slowdown. PUdaily, which carried the declaration on 8 August, listed the affected product families as Acclaim, Arcol, Baydur, Bayfill, Bayfit, Bayflex, Baymer, Baytherm and Desmophen, a range that the trade press notes includes rigid-foam insulation systems. Dormagen also produces TDI, with a stated annual capacity of 300,000 metric tons, according to PU Magazine.
The disruption is not confined to one producer. Chemicals account for around 11% of commodity traffic on the Rhine, and BASF separately declared force majeure on several surfactants because of raw-material shortages. PU Magazine reports that Evonik and Ineos shifted freight onto road and rail. For a cluster whose feedstock logistics were built around the waterway in the first place, that is a partial remedy rather than a substitute.
How the event is classified matters for how it resolves. Nothing in the reporting points to a change in polyol demand or to a plant failure; the constraint is the depth of a river, which means output returns when the water does. The open question is duration. The 5 August reading of 20 cm was the lowest in the record, and no date has been published for lifting the declaration.
For anyone buying or formulating two-component systems, the practical point is that this lands on the polyol half of the blend and is independent of whatever the isocyanate side is doing. A European polyether polyol force majeure means longer lead times, firmer offers on polyol, stock positions that may not hold once confirmed, and allocation decided by the supplier rather than the buyer. The defensive moves are unglamorous: keep a second polyol source qualified that does not depend on Rhine logistics, check whether existing contracts contain volume commitments the supplier can suspend, and treat delivery dates on rigid insulation systems as provisional until the river recovers.