A study conducted on behalf of via donau by the Austrian Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning evaluated the prospects of water-based transhipment of cargo in the Austrian Danube ports. The development of the transport markets was analysed in detail for 24 groups of goods in relation to their potentials in the catchment area of the ports in close co-operation with the Community of Interests of Public Danube Ports in Austria (IGÖD  - Interessensgemeinschaft Öffentlicher Donauhäfen in Österreich).
The assumptions of the forecast are based on a continued swift economic growth in the Danube corridor and an increase in the percentage of waterway transport as a result of the implementation of the National Action Plan on Danube Navigation (particularly the measures in the fields of telecommunication and logistics and the improvement of the fairway conditions – ongoing Integrated River Engineering Project East of Vienna, unloading depth of 2.5 m).
By 2015, the volume of water-based transhipment in the port of Enns is expected to amount to approximately 3.8 million tonnes. In the port of Vienna, the volume of water transhipment is anticipated to amount to approximately 3.2 million tonnes, in the port of Linz it will be 2.4 million tonnes and in the port of Krems it will amount to 1.9 million tonnes. Together, the four public ports could achieve a water transhipment volume of 11.3 million tonnes. Together with the forecasted transhipment volume of the private ports and landing sites, the Austrian ports will tranship approximately 17.7 million tonnes of cargo by 2015. This is equivalent to nearly a doubling of the transhipment figures of the last few years (2005: 8.4 million tonnes, 2004: 8.1 million tonnes).
Opportunities for navigation services are not only seen in the fields of bulk goods (primary products, agricultural and mineral oil products, fertilisers), but – depending on the improvement measures – also with regard to higher quality products of the chemical, construction and paper industries, for example. On the one hand, this will require the creation of intermodal transport chains which also include ports or, in other words, an efficient integration of inland navigation, rail and road. On the other hand, the establishment of other industries in the ports will significantly strengthen the opportunities of the Danube as a transport mode. Projects include the planned bio-fuel production plants in Enns and Pischelsdorf, for which the Danube provides the optimal transport solution to carry their products to the refinery in Schwechat, and the bio-fuel production facility in the Vienna Lobau oil port which is already under construction.

A summary of the study can be downloaded here.