Common Goals

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#Kunden & Region|  7 Min.

Common Goals

Hans-Peter Zint, Managing Director Cuxport GmbH, Lays Out the Building Blocks for a Sustainable Business Relationship at the Port

When Hans-Peter Zint looks out from his window at the operations building of Cuxport GmbH, he has clear view of the mouth of the River Elbe. He witnesses the ships’ arrivals into the Port of Cuxhaven and can see them mooring at the pier. Here, Cuxport is our largest terminal service provider that contributes to the port's hustle and bustle with its cargo handling business.

Hans-Peter Zint has been the Managing Director of Cuxport for 15 years and is responsible for some crucial developmental steps at the Port of Cuxhaven during this time. With the help of Berth 4, Cuxport was able to increase their cargo handling capacities by some 30%.  That is a great reason to interview the managing director about his planning horizons for a successful and sustainable business development.

 

Mr. Zint, what are the factors that are important to you for a successful business development?

I personally subscribe to the idea of a relationship based on equality and partnership: Openness, reliability, a fair interaction with the other party, and the pursuit of a common goal, to me, all these qualities are the building blocks that a successful business relationship is built upon. I really value traits like predictability and reliability. I don't like it, when someone pursues some kind of hidden agenda.

 

Speaking of reliability: What kind of time perspective do you apply when planning for the future?

The port business is inherently a long-term affair. The utilization contracts that we conclude with NPorts for our areas run for 30 years or longer. So, if you have to make an investment for a contract, you will only do that when you in turn can get a long-term commitment from the customer. To our line of business, longevity is intrinsic: Maritime shipping and thus port cargo handling has been around for ages, and it will always exist.

 

And what do you make of short-term challenges, such as the Brexit?

Especially since we must think long-term as a port service provider, I am convinced that the fallout from Brexit will no longer be tangible in three years. The greatest effects will come from changes in customs formalities and reporting obligations. We have been preparing for this since 2016: through employee training, new IT programs, and intense customer dialog. Since we are dependent of the English market to a large degree, we are likely to encounter fluctuations in volume. But our location also has great logistical advantages. We are quite hopeful that whatever market share we may lose will be compensated by customers that recreate their supply chain. The first orders are already confirmed.

 

What are the sustainable changes in customer expectations?

We feel that large companies are increasingly demanding that environmental consideration needs to be incorporated into manufacturing and the supply chain to some degree. Other than that, I do not foresee any significant changes. Customer expectations change on a daily basis. And - should anything change - we are prepared to react with flexibility.

 

What do you think of the Outlook Paper for the Port of Cuxhaven that NPorts had recently presented?

It is one of the core tasks of NPorts to preconceive, which direction the development of the ports should take. We were invited to pitch in our point of view. In our view, it is important that there are fair guidelines for competition, for instance, when it comes to the awarding of surface areas. And also, that the side-by-side of the cargo handling areas is compatible: You can hardly place some dusty dry bulk cargo next to cars. But these are rather technical issues. Part of the sustainability of our business is also that there are no new restrictive conditions generate within the overall environment that would jeopardize our existing business. That's why we believe that the coordination process is both important and right, so that we can tackle the future in a joint process. After all, it is in our best interest to be strong at the location and to do everything in our power, to keep it that way. When new opportunities arise, we naturally want to take advantage of them and reflect them here at this location. Therefore, I think it’s great that the plan approval notice for the new Berths 5 through 7 is now available and that we get the opportunity to react to the market's demands in real time.

 

What are the growth opportunities you see?

That is a loaded question. The rapid growth in the transport sector that we saw for many years is now a thing of the past. The discussions around the globalization effect that leads to bringing production back here, the factoring in of environmental impacts as external costs into freight charges, the gradual elimination of comparative wage advantages in Asia, and even the finiteness of price advantages through technology leaps in logistics - the growth speculations and expectations in this context need to be throttled back quite a lot. Every expansion always also requires a resilient business to back it up.

 

What is the role that sustainability plays when it comes to growth?

To me, sustainability means predictability, reliability, resilience. That applies as much to our long-lasting employee relationships that we are extremely proud of, as it does to the relationships we have with our customers. This, in turn, depends on the location. If it's a good location, then Cuxhaven is also a sustainable location for us. Generally, sustainable growth means a growth that is neutral in the consumption of its resources. And that, in turn, is a complicated and complex task that must satisfy many interests and stakeholders.

 

How important is NPorts’ Sustainability Management in this context?

Essentially important! LNG refueling, shore power connections, LED lighting, that is all great, and it does make an impact. But when it comes to dealing with a customer it means that it must be implemented with finesse. We need to be careful not to do something half-hearted, when it comes to customer relations. On the other hand, I feel that the peer pressure is still very high that a novel concept will come along and bring the swift solution to fix it all - a good example for this is hydrogen. Cuxhaven is a showcase region for the deployment of hydrogen from offshore energy. Cuxport participates here, because we do see a future for it. At the terminal, I have some 15 large pieces of handling equipment in operation with traditional combustion engines as propulsion. And of course, it is very much in our own best interest to support the research so that one day, we can use hydrogen energy to make propulsion different and sustainably better. But this is still in the future.

 

Mr. Zint, one final question: How do you approach sustainability in your personal life?

Like many others, I walk the fine line between ambition and reality in everyday life. I am far from preaching my behavior to others. At the same time, I think it’s important that there is more discussion about growth and prosperity.
I ask myself, if prosperity should always only be measured by the gross domestic product, or if other factors should be considered, such as a secure workplace, participation in culture, a safe social environment. After all, sustainability demands that we save resources. And in this context, I do not only look at the economic resources, but also at the human resources.

 

 

 

 

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