The Kiel Canal is the busiest artificial waterway in the world: almost 30,000 ships use it every year. That is more passages than on the Suez Canal (around 25,000) and even significantly more than on the Panama Canal (around 12,000). This makes the smooth functioning of its locks all the more important. However, there have recently been increasing problems here, which have affected both commercial and recreational shipping.
Now the southern chamber of the small locks in Brunsbüttel, which are also used by pleasure craft, has been hit. It initially had to be closed due to "technical problems". Operation is now possible again - but only around low water.
Due to the resulting limited capacity, delays must be expected. The corresponding notice for seafarers (BfS) was published by the responsible Kiel Canal Waterways and Shipping Authority.
Most recently, the large locks were affected
It was only on Monday last week that a defect in a gate of the large south lock temporarily restricted operations on the Kiel Canal. As the large north lock has been out of service since 19 September due to a technical defect, ships were temporarily only able to pass through the two small lock chambers. However, pleasure craft must also pass through these. This led to bottlenecks and longer waiting times. Owners feared a lengthy full closure.
However, the fault at the south lock was rectified during the course of Monday and the chamber is now back in operation. The north lock, on the other hand, remains closed. Recreational shipping can still use the two small chambers, but also shares them with container feeder traffic.
The north chamber was damaged at the beginning of 2025. After repairs, it went back into operation in August of this year, but was damaged again on 19 September and went out of service. This means that only one of the two large chambers ("Large South Lock") is currently in operation. If there is a failure here, neither of the two large chambers will be available temporarily, as happened on Monday evening. This could also lead to longer waiting times in the two smaller chambers.
