If collaboration works, it can generate synergies. However, the result may be the complete opposite if there are no clear structures or mutual trust between partners. Marc-Oliver Hauswald, board member of the association Logistikportal Niedersachsen, and Sven Hermann, Chairman of LogistikLotsen für die Metropolregion Nordwest, report on their experiences regarding this demanding balancing act.
“Networks help companies to adapt and increase their resilience.”
Sven Hermann, Chairman of LogistikLotsen für die Metropolregion Nordwest
Hermann: There has been an exceedingly strong trend towards cooperation in the logistics and maritime industry. Shipping companies, port operators, logistic service providers and loading agents are faced with high costs and the pressure to improve efficiency, while investments in digitalisation, sustainability and resilience continue to rise. For smaller and medium-sized companies, it is difficult to cope with these challenges alone. Consequently, cooperation is less an option and more a necessity to retain a competitive edge in the future, too.
Hauswald: As far as I’m concerned, the idea of cooperating and networking with other companies is gaining ever more importance in the logistics and maritime sectors. After all, the competition with international locations and service providers makes it necessary to continually review where it makes sense to cooperate with other market participants, in order to provide holistic and competitive solutions for optimising transport chains.
LOGISTICS PILOT: Why are cooperation and networks key?
Hermann: Nowadays, cooperation and networks are crucial because value chains have become more complex, global and dynamic. As such, only a handful of companies can provide the expertise, technologies and resources by themselves. By forming partnerships, know-how can be pooled, innovations can be implemented more quickly and market access gained more easily. Networks increase a company’s resilience and the ability to adapt, such as in instances of supply bottlenecks or geographical risks.
Hauswald: From an economic perspective, cooperation and strategic alliances result in a combination of factors, including risk reduction, generation of synergy effects and transfer of knowledge. In Lower Saxony, for instance, where many medium-sized companies are closely intertwined with the global market, cooperation and strategic alliances help to tap into new know-how, digital infrastructures or joint investments, such as in digitalisation, or in sustainable technologies.
“The advantages must be measurable in economic terms for all concerned.”
Marc-Oliver Hauswald, Board member of the association of Logistikportal Niedersachsen and Managing Director of Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven JadeWeserPort-Marketing
Hermann: Nowadays, companies are finding it easier to tread a fine line between competition and cooperation, which is often referred to as “coopetition”. Nevertheless, it’s still a challenge. This balancing act is successful where there are clear rules, transparent goals and contractual frameworks. Companies frequently cooperate in areas prior to the competitive stage. Trust plays a crucial role here as well as professional governance management, in order to manage any conflict of interests. Whoever controls this balancing act, can achieve efficiency gains together, without giving up their strategic independence. By contrast, insufficient clarity or a power imbalance can soon put an end to such partnerships.
Hauswald: Many companies in Lower Saxony are successfully striking a balance between cooperation and competition. Nevertheless, this remains a challenge in the long term. The maritime industry and the logistics sector have proven in the past that they are relatively “inflexible”. Generally, habits are hard to break and treading new paths frowned upon. The advantages must be obvious and measurable in economic terms – by all concerned. If this is the case, a high degree of trust, reliability and a good measure of courage are needed for successful cooperation.
LOGISTICS PILOT: What is on your “cooperation agenda” in 2026?
Hermann: I had my first taste of cooperating successfully this year with the continuation of the “Project Logistics Master Class” series in early January, which took place with BHV – Bremischen Hafen- und Logistikvertretung. With numerous representatives from loading agents and logistics partners, we worked together to come up with ideas for optimising risk and contract management as well as future cooperation on AI projects. This will be resumed in March at Logistics-Connect – the congress and networking highlight of the year. In addition, we’re currently having talks with bremenports and VDMA about a cooperation to organise a kind of workshop of the future in spring, where we intend bringing together apprentices, students of dual vocational and training courses as well as young skilled workers from industrial and logistics companies to explore tomorrow’s world of work together.
Hauswald: As far as JadeWeserPort is concerned, we’d like to develop new transport routes with partners from the hinterland, especially the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region with its approximately 14 million inhabitants, and vice versa. Initial meetings with representatives from the world’s largest inland port in Duisburg have proven promising. Now we need to delve deeper into this topic. The most important gateway for the quantity of goods coming from Asia is the Port of Rotterdam as Europe’s logistics hub, from where enormous amounts of goods are transported, mainly by barges but also by rail, along the Rhine to the Rhine-Ruhr region. With the right partners on our side, we would like to provide the greatest possible support to steer part of this volume through JadeWeserPort in future, in line with the motto “more containers for Germany”. Likewise, strengthening our connections to Eastern Europe is planned. A few weeks ago, we were able to present our port location in Budapest, thanks to local cooperation partners there. In 2026, we’re planning a similar event in Prague with the help of local network partners. (bre)
