Holland Goes Germany

Technologically advanced, robust and backed by solid supply chains: the German maritime industry is like the whole ‘Wirtschaft’. Dutch suppliers can find partners there, if they deliver highly specialised and innovative equipment. Well prepared, detailed and technical presentations with a formal approach will please German businessmen.

Central in the European continent with only short coastlines at the North Sea and Baltic Sea, Germany’s ports and shipbuilding industry are located in the northern part of the country. Kiel, Hamburg, Bremen and other ports have been trading posts since the early medieval times, when trade between the Baltic and northwest European countries manifested with the ‘Hansesteden’ culture. Today, German ship owners operate a fleet of over 3,500 seagoing vessels and are the second largest ship owning country in the world. They are ‘Weltmeister’ in operating large container vessels – over 2,000 of the largest ships carrying containers over the oceans are owned by German companies. A lot of the cars produced in Germany are distributed around the world from the northern ports.

Renewables

Besides the large fleet of cargo vessels operated by Germans, the country also has an industry of maritime production. The largest and most renowned shipyards building cruise liners and very large motor yachts are located in the ports in the north of Germany. Another segment of maritime production is the installation of (offshore) wind farms. Both on land with the world’s highest capacity of solar power and privately-owned wind turbines, as well as on water with extensive investments by energy companies in offshore wind energy, Germany is a leading country for renewable energy.

Capabilities

Dutch shipyards and suppliers that deliver wind farm support vessels, specialised solutions for large vessels that save maintenance cost or help operate these vessels more efficiently, suppliers of quality air conditioning and ventilation systems or even top-line entertainment systems – a wide variety of companies from the maritime production sector so to say – can be successful in the German market. Germans are generally considered friendly neighbours. The biggest international trade partner of the Netherlands is Germany and the maritime industry of the Netherlands operates internationally and is export-oriented. Still export to Germany is relatively small in the maritime business. Industry associations like Netherlands Maritime Technology (NMT) have noticed this and have been working to introduce member companies to possible German partners. A series of short visits to hotspots of German maritime activity has led to mutual insight of the needs and capabilities of the maritime sectors of these two north-west European seagoing nations.

Formalised

”The Netherlands and Germany are competitors in many sectors of the world maritime industry”, Henk Lacet analyses. The export pioneer and co-founder of HME (Holland Marine Equipment, now part of NMT) explains why the bigger chances for Dutch exporting companies lay in Asia. ”The German industry has a complete chain of production on its own, including suppliers of all necessities. Last year, we organised a mutual pavilion on a trade show in Indonesia with Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Although we are roughly in the same market segment, we had a first cooperation in presenting our industries internationally. However, in the markets where we have established business partners, we will go our separate ways.” The maritime industry being largely self-supplying in Germany, makes it difficult for Dutch companies to find business partners here.

”German yards often have a group of suppliers with relations that go back for decades”, export manager Michael Roerade of NMT remarks. ”They are reluctant to change these cooperations. Meyer Werft, for example, works with about 800 different suppliers. A company that wants to take part in a tender for a project, has to qualify to a specific list of demands. The process at Meyer Werft is formalised to the level of sending in an application form to be able to compete in a tender. The sunny side is the undeniable fact that the Netherlands has a very strong reputation as a supplier of high quality components in the maritime industry and German yards know that.”

Roerade has organised several one-day or two-day missions to Germany. In 2010, a meet & greet with a number of German yards was organised in Leer, while in 2013 a mission with 25 Dutch companies went to the Meyer Werft in Papenburg. Finding German customers may be hard, it is certainly not impossible. The majority of participating companies in both missions have established relations with German clients.

Detail

”Working with German business relations is not so complicated”, sales engineer Vincent van Varik of Hatenboer-Water has experienced. ”Our way of dealing with projects is quite similar. Maybe our partners are a little more focussed on procedures, details and accuracy, and business culture is more formal. We like the transparency in the cooperation with German maritime businesses.” Hatenboer-Water has been looking at the German market for several years. Thanks to presentations at the SMM Hamburg trade show and participation with the NMT mini-missions, they have now set up stable relations with German yards like Nordic Yards and Blohm & Voss. Van Varik: “We specialise in fresh water systems on specialised  vessels like ice breakers, navy ships or offshore support vessels. German naval architects present strict specifications, to which we deliver. If we discover inefficiencies in the water system from our own expertise, we will inform the German client. They adapt to our suggestions quite easily, once they are convinced that they would result in an improvement.”

“Our watch alarm systems for seagoing vessels and tachographs for inland shipping are interesting tools for German ship owners”, sales manager Stefan Meun – Visser of Marble Automation is convinced. “We have found German business partners through our presentations at SMM, but we also participated in the visit to Meyer Werft, to meet the seven German shipyards present there. A pleasant factor is the fact that Germany is close. It is less then a day’s car drive to almost any location of the maritime industry in Germany from our headquarters in the Netherlands. We also find clients by visiting them directly in their offices. We just call to ask if we may give a short presentation about our products. Often, German ship owners welcome us. Contacts may be formal, but companies are open for options on improving their efficiency.” German clients are more demanding than their Asian colleagues, Meun – Visser has noticed: “Often, we need to visit a client multiple times and keep investing in the cooperation. It also means we need to translate the operation manuals into German language.” Normally, all manuals are in the internationally spoken maritime English. The specialised alarms and tachographs of Marble Automation are produced by only a few companies. For regulatory use by German inland shipping companies, these appliances need to be WSV approved. Marble equipment is approved by this ‘Wasser- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung des Bundes’.

Top down

Neighbours with extensive economic ties, speaking similar languages and displaying industries with strong emphasis on technological innovation, Germans and Dutch still experience cultural differences that may cause misunderstandings. German business culture is much more formal than the way Dutch like to be. “Attending a business meeting without a tie is not done”, spokesperson Lars Gutheil of the Deutsch – Niederländische HandelsKammer (DNHK) clarifies. “You do not talk about your personal life and address conversation partners with the formal ‘Sie’ and not ‘Du’. Furthermore, Germans are much more strict about the hierarchy in their organisation. This manifests in the way decisions are made. During meetings, the decision has often been determined by the company staff beforehand. Germans will feel insulted if they have to negotiate with a person that is lower in the organisation.”

From the German perspective, the Dutch might seem unclear, they tend to be personal when professional distance is required, and they seem to think that professional relations can be established, based on trust. Germans want figures, proof and technical details. ‘Unsicherheitsmeidung’ – eviction ofuncertainty – has been described as a key word when German businesses form new alliances, hence the culture with lots of documents, feedback from headquarters and detailed contracts.

Like in many cultures, friends in high places open doors. Hylke Boerstra, a Dutchman who grew up in Bremen and has experience in maritime funding, is a member of the board of directors of Carl Buttner Shipping and the Honorary Consul for The Netherlands in Bremen, acknowledges the opportunity of Dutch suppliers to play a role in German shipbuilding as well as supplying special equipment for ship owners.

Common vision

In maritime education and bi-national maritime innovation, Dutch – German relations have intensified the last few years. The EU Interreg Niederlande Deutschland programme MariTIM brings together companies in the northern part of the Netherlands with colleagues from the north-western part of Germany in collective innovation projects. Sustainable shipping is the main focus of this project. Ferry operators, harbour officials, shipyards and suppliers join in projects to develop LNG propelled passenger vessels. Partners in this project are Rederij Doeksen, that operates the ferry between Harlingen port and the island of Terschelling, together with Princenhof, making tourist trip though a natural reserve in Friesland, as well as AG Ems, operating the ferry from Eemshaven to Borkum. Another project is the preparation of a network of LNG bunkering facilities, together with EnergyValley. A study into the development of a commercially viable windhybrid coaster is another ground-breaking project led by MariTIM. In the summer of 2014, the rotors for a new Flettner Rotor windship are constructed in Emden. Model testing has resulted in predicted energy savings up to 25 per cent on a cargo ship, sailing in the wind with the lift generated by the two vertical rotor on its deck. ”Using wind as a propulsion force again in shipping, is all about awareness”, MariTIM project leader Katja Baumann says. ”I love the achievements of the Dutch sailing traders of the Tres Hombres, But we want to achieve a wind-propelled vessel that is attractive to ‘normal’ shipping companies. The 16 metre high GRP rotors we are building now, will get the project to the level of real-size testing. We will start testing on deck of a barge, as we are still searching for the right type of ship to install the Flettner rotors upon.”

One of the founding partners in MariTIM is maritime knowledge centre MARIKO (Maritimes Kompetenz Zentrum). This institute brings together knowledge, students and projects from the maritime department of Hochschule Emden/Leer, Duisburg-Essen University in Germany with Hanzehogeschool Groningen, NHL Leeuwarden and Zeevaartschool Willem Barentsz from Terschelling. Also research institutes TNO, MARIN, TCNN participate. Common goal is to improve innovative maritime technology in the Ems-Dollard region.

Integration

While business cooperation on the level of big orders at big projects is only starting to develop, intense cooperation of mid-size companies in highly innovative projects is getting shape in the north. Only time will tell if this is the prelude to more integration of the Dutch-German maritime industries.

Hans Buitelaar