Episode 4 Nils Haupt Head of Corporate Communications at Hapag-Lloyd

We are delighted to be joined today by Nils Haupt from Hapag-Lloyd
— one of the world’s leading container shipping companies.

Now, global shipping is one of those industries that most people rarely think about… until something goes wrong. Yet almost everything we use, wear, build, or consume has likely spent time on a container vessel somewhere in the world. From electronics and pharmaceuticals to food, retail, and industrial goods, global trade quite literally moves by sea.

Nils has had a fascinating career journey across media, aviation, and now international shipping — giving him a unique perspective on how communication, leadership, and customer expectations are evolving in an increasingly volatile world.

And there’s certainly no shortage of volatility right now.

Over the past few years, supply chains have faced pandemic disruption, port congestion, geopolitical tensions, war in the Red Sea, rising fuel costs, and now renewed instability around the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world’s most strategically important shipping routes.

Today, we’re going to explore what these disruptions actually mean in practical terms for global carriers: how quickly shipping networks can adapt, the real operational and financial costs behind rerouting vessels, the knock-on effects across global trade, and importantly, the human impact on crews working in high-risk regions.

We’ll also discuss how customer expectations have changed, why resilience is now becoming just as important as efficiency, and what supply chain leaders should be preparing for next.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

There is no other way of getting our prices around this country. Only trucks.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

So if the complex is not in your head, do not blame the honeyers because we just can't afford to put the fuel in our trucks. Supply Chain Ireland Podcast. The voices behind Ireland's supply chain. Supply Chain Ireland Podcast with Kevin Burton.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Hello and you're very welcome to another edition of Supply Chain Ireland Podcast. I'm delighted to be joined today by Nils Haupt from Happa Glide, one of the world's leading container shipping companies. Now, global shipping is one of those industries that most people rarely think about until something goes wrong. Yet almost everything we wear, build or consume has likely spent time on a container vessel somewhere in the world. From electronics and pharmaceuticals to food, retail and industrial goods, global trade quite literally moves by sea. Over the past few years, supply chains have faced pandemic disruptions, port congestion, geopolitical tensions, war in the Red Sea, and rising fuel costs, and now renewed instability around the Strait of Hermuz, one of the world's most strategically important shipping routes. Today we're going to explore what these disruptions actually mean in practical terms for global carriers, how quickly shipping networks can adapt, the real operational and financial cost behind rerouting vessels, the knock-on effect across global trade, and importantly, the human impact on crews working in high-risk regions. Niels, uh good morning, and and you're very welcome to Supply Chain Ireland uh podcast. Thank you. You've worked across media, aviation, and now global shipping, a fascinating route into logistics. What originally drew you into global logistics and shipping?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Well, I was a journalist for many years, uh working for German national TV in East Germany, and um with a small excursion to a German bank, I then got the opportunity to join uh Lufthansa Cargo at that time. And although I didn't know a lot about logistics, uh I thought it's uh it's a very nice challenge. And I took the challenge and I started, and yeah, I really deep dived into the um air cargo business, which I really liked, and then from there into the the Lufthansa group business, which was um like the MRO, uh like maintenance repair overhaul, then also the IT, then the catering, the cargo and the passenger business, which was even more interesting, that was in the US, and then I went to shipping, which is still fascinating. So that that makes 25 years of uh of logistics and um never a dull moment.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

And of course, of course, shipping is a hugely complex and mostly invisible uh to the public. What makes communication in the industry uniquely challenging?

SPEAKER_01 3:19

I think exactly that what you said, that it's a it's a B2B business. We work with uh very big customers, be it forwarders or be it manufacturers, the big the big companies. And um I think the general public doesn't really understand what it means when they when they are at their supermarket and they take an apple out from the um from the fruit shelf, and the apple might come from New Zealand, and nobody's imagining what kind of challenging, difficult, complex process is behind to bring this apple from the field in New Zealand to the supermarket in Ireland, right? So um I think there was a huge chance the industry had in 2020 when COVID started, that people experienced, oh wow, I have to wait six months for an e-bike, yeah, because supply chains were disrupted. And that was a big chance. And now, I mean, people see again. Um, when we had the crisis in the Red Sea and in the Suez Canal, which is still ongoing, and now the crisis in the Persian Gulf. So people more and more understand that logistics is very complex and that you can take it for granted that in your supermarket or in your bicycle shop, everything is there in the shelves, and you just have to take it, right? And I think this is one of the big challenges we are having.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

How would you say the last few years changed the role of communications in supply chains?

SPEAKER_01 4:54

I think especially if we look back the last six years, there was a sequence of big and very big crises, which uh which was uh internally but also externally extremely challenging. So it started with COVID, which was basically two, two and a half years of um very intense disruption and also with you know lots of emotions when it comes to the situation of co-workers, wherever you looked at, be it in in Peru, where you know people were were dying and and corpses were in the streets in Ecuador, we had three people who passed away, young people who passed away in Dubai and in India. Um, after COVID, uh we had the the war in Ukraine, where we also had 20 co-workers in Odessa, um we offered to leave, and then we started with logistics support in Ukraine. Then a year later we had the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, and since then have not returned to the Red Sea and went uh are going via the Cape of Good Hope, um, which is uh which is of course a heavy burden for everybody. Then we had a short but uh short war between Pakistan and India. Um it might only have been a few days, but for logistics, still the problems are ongoing. And then on the 28th of February started the the war um in Iran. So still also with heavy impact on logistics, especially when it comes to the Persian Gulf, we still have four ships um stuck in the Persian Gulf. So if you just look at that, a series of you know geopolitical crises paired with the logistical challenges um, with full ports, not enough capacity, lots of waiting times, you know, at the ports, at the terminals. So that were six years which heavily impacted uh shipping and logistics. And their communication is key, not only communication with customers, communication with media, but also internal communication. Explain to the colleagues, you know, what is happening, um, show respect and appreciation for all the people who now work every day and every night, um, trying to keep the cargo flow running and also you know, be with the people in difficult times when in countries like in Latin America or in India when we had COVID, you know, these people were heavily affected, working from home, um, and probably with eight people in your home without air condition, and then uh um sitting at your laptop in a corner of the apartment and trying to focus on work while you had your grandparents and your small kids around you. So, I mean, this were six years which heavily impacted shipping and also heavily impacted our customs and our employees.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

I do want to talk more about obviously the strait of Hermuz. Uh, just a question around customer expectations in logistics. They they've seem to have changed dramatically. What does customer centricity actually mean in practical terms in Hapa Glide?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

So we have the very clear vision that we want to be the undisputed number one for quality. Because, you know, for many years everybody said, you know, what where is the difference between shipping lines when it's just about to transport a container from A to B? If you're looking back at the last 10, 15, 20 years, you know, the schedule reliability in our industry was roughly an average about 50-55%, which is not really satisfying, right? And now our clear target is to bring that up uh to more than 90%. And we made that with the help of our Gemini Corporation. But this is something which what customers really appreciate, you know, that they can rely on a carrier and that quality is something which they really would like to see all over the industry and which the industry hasn't achieved in the last years. So I think customers have been have been used to, you know, that's a kind of um mediocre performance of the carriers, but you know, in shipping, speed was never a big issue. It's uh it's uh it's it was always more an issue of aviation, but quality is important, and that's what we see, you know, that customers more and more look at quality, on reliability, on you know, proactively responding when there is an issue, when there is a problem, right? And this is something we try to focus on to really become the number one, and that also means that you need to communicate regularly, proactively, not hiding away uh with empathy, you know, to understand, you know, what are the problems of the customers. Very often, problems of customers have been ignored. And this should not be the case, right? Because many carriers in many industries, not only shipping, they rely on bots or AI now, you know, to answer questions. And we all know how difficult this is if you have a problem and you are in the telephone line and you're waiting for 30 30 minutes and nothing is happening, right? And I mean, try to be close to the customers. I think this is really the key of our industry.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Yeah, uh, we all know about that about those bots. Don't get don't get me started. Let's talk about the current situation in the Strait of Hermuz from an operational perspective. Like we see overnight, uh, we've seen another sharp escalation between Iran and the US, including exchanges involving naval assets and renewed threats around commercial shipping lanes. How would you describe the current operational picture in the region at the moment?

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Well, if we're looking at the export out of the region, um this is extremely frustrating and depressing because since 28th of February, when the war started, only a few ships have been able to leave the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, either by accident uh or by luck, um, or by you know trying to avoid uh each and every communication with any of the war parties. Um, so more than 1,000 ships are stuck, it's 20,000 seafarers, lots of containers on board which would be needed to be transported. So situation is challenging, difficult, nerve-wracking, and for the seafarers, you know, more and more um traumatizing, I should say. Yeah. When it comes to transports into this into the Persian Gulf, um, I mean, yes, you couldn't bring any container into the region. Now we have some land opportunities, so either via Jeddah or uh via Fujaria, which is in the um the southern part of the United Arab Emirates. But still, I mean, if you want to get rid of 4,000 containers, you need 4,000 trucks and the land side, and you need the truck drivers, and you need the infrastructure. So it is extremely challenging. So um to sum it up, situation is difficult, it is not satisfying for customers, it is nerve-wracking for shipping companies and for the seafarers. And the very bad thing is that there's no light at the end of the tunnel, right? Nobody knows how this will end. It's now uh close to 10 weeks, and it reminds a little bit of the situation we had in the 60s in the Suez Canal, where we had a ship stuck for seven years and 11 months. Um, we very much hope that this will not be the case, but at the moment, I don't see uh any indication that this will end within the next days or within the next one, two, three weeks.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Should there be a coalition of the willing to get the Strait of Hermuz open?

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Yeah, I mean that would be uh the dream, right? That we have uh lots of different uh countries, uh partners who are working closely together to uh make the street open again. But as we can see, Iranians are still attacking ships. Last Tuesday they attacked a ship of uh CMACGM, eight eight sailors were uh injured. And I mean this leads to the assumption that with this danger, which is very present, you know, at the moment, nobody would voluntarily cross the Strait of Hormos, even if the United States and the US Army and the US president say, you know, just go through, don't be a coward. But I mean, the security and safety of our seafarers, of the vessels, of the cargo of our customers is key. And this is what you need to keep in mind. You can say, yeah, just go through, um, be courageous, but it's about sea mines, it's about attacks on ships, it's about seafarers having been injured, and keeping in mind that we have sons and daughters and fathers and mothers on board of our ships, you know. You wouldn't dare to do that. It's not about daring, it's about safety and security.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Obviously, uh Hapaglide have have crew members in the area think it's in the region of 125 seafarers. You know, how uh in a from a day-to-day point of view are those guys um and girls living their lives?

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Yeah, I mean, what is what has improved since uh the ceasefire is that we are able to deliver food and fresh water to the ships, which is done by ships from from different ports in the region, so from from Dubai, for instance, and then we can provide our seafarers with the necessities they they need. Um when it comes to the situation, uh the mental situation, yes. I mean, it's easy to imagine, you know, that every day this is getting worse. I mean, and now it's the very important job of the captains to keep the steam spirit up, to not let people go after work into their room, and then they start to think deeper and and might run into melancholy or depression or whatever. Um, but to keep the team spirit high by by by bringing people together in the evening, by could be you know a karaoke show, could be a um basketball tournament on deck, could be you know video evening, a barbecue, whatever. And uh so far, lucky us, none of the seafarers has asked to be removed from deck and and to because of mental issues. I I feel that the team spirit is very high and that this is very successful, but I mean, without any doubt, um the biggest hope they are all having is that they will be out of the Persian Gulf very soon.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

I suppose we all know that seafarers are quite resilient people.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

They are, they are very resilient, but we also know that that there's something like you know, seafarers uh depression, which can come up, right? Uh when you're traveling for a long time or you can't move for a long time, you know. Um, so you have to take this into account as well. And we offer help, we talk to the crews every day. Um, we were able to exchange uh crew members as well. So it is not that you know they are stuck there on the ship uh um without any alternative. So when when the um when there is an opportunity to exchange people, then we are doing it.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

What type of cargo or industries are being hit hardest uh by the disruption in the region?

SPEAKER_01 17:18

I mean, when we talk about export of the region, uh the region in the Persian Gulf is not extremely famous for being one of the key exporting countries, but um it is uh mainly fertilizer, which is manufactured in the region, which is extremely important for sorry, which is extremely important for agriculture in very different countries. And uh this might have a huge effect on fertility um of soil in many countries and might lead to the effect, you know, that we might have uh harvests uh which are uh much worse than in the last years. Um when we are looking at imports, I mean, especially from South America, typical imports are um fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, um, and in the region, you know, where when you have average temperatures of 30, 35, sometimes 40 degrees, of course, they are in need of citrus or fruit or vegetable from other countries, especially from South America. When we look at China or uh let's say the Asia region, it's electronics, it's spare parts, uh, technology, it's everything made of plastics, it's machinery, it's household goods. So um it's a lot of stuff coming from the Far East. Telecommunication, I should not forget, chemistry. So they are highly dependent, like everybody, um highly dependent on goods from the Far East. So that's a big issue if you don't get your spare parts on time. Yes, there's aviation, there's air cargo, but I mean air cargo is 50 times more expensive um than ocean cargo. And then you you better think twice, right? If if you do um air cargo or ocean cargo.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

People often think first about delays, but behind the scenes, the financial impact on a global carrier must be enormous.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Yes, the financial impact is enormous, without any doubt. I mean, if you look at fuel costs, or the cost per ton of fuel have gone up for some time uh about $400 per ton. Um, we need for our more than 300 ships per week 100,000 tons. So if you just look at that, that's 40 million a week of additional cost just for fuel. Then if you look on insurances, uh insurance for vessels in the region and not only in the Gulf, but in the region, which is Middle East, have gone through the roof. What we normally pay for a year, we now pay for a week. Um, and then you also have to take into account that we had a high five-digit number of containers which couldn't be transported into the Gulf region. So they needed to be stored at ports close to the region in Oman, in India, in Pakistan, and of course, ports want storage fees. Um, this could be up to three-digit um amount of dollar per container per day. So this is also millions a day. So this leads to the assumption that we roughly have additional cost of 50 million per week.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

So this is pretty heavy, right? Heavy to bear. And of course, we we wouldn't survive that if we wouldn't pass the majority of the costs on to our customers.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

When at what point do you expect pushback from customers on the story charges?

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Um, I wouldn't expect that because customers know. I mean, if you are for some time in the industry and most of our customers are doing that for years or decades, they know how sensitive and how vulnerable supply chains are, and they are used to that. And I mean, if you understand um the relationship to your shipping line as a partnership, and we are partners, you have to understand that there is some um some very distinct um or let me start with that again. Um when you are in a relationship with your shipping line, um you it is a close partnership, and you have to understand if situations change and situations get worse, or you have like a war, or you have a conflict, or you have a pandemic, you know, then things change. And most of the customers have a very clear understanding that. Yes, this is additional cost, and yes, we have to bear it. We all remember probably the year of two thousand I think it was two thousand fourteen, when a shipping line went bankrupt, Hanjin from South Korea. And the effect uh was awful because a hundred ships were stuck somewhere in the world, they couldn't call any ports and terminals anymore, and the stuff of the customers was on the ship for weeks and months, and you didn't get your cargo back because this shipping line just got painted. And this is something, of course, we need to avoid. You know, don't leave shipping lines behind because they are crucial for world trade and for the transport of the goods of the customers. And I think this is understood by the majority in our industry, and yes, customers, of course, are not happy with it, but then they have to uh to pass it on to their customers, and then at the end, probably um the consumers have have to bear additional costs, as we also already can see in some respects with some goods that they have become much more expensive.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

Do you feel it could um trigger a global recession?

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Well, I mean, what I could imagine is that with fuel and gas, which have become hugely expensive in the last weeks, much more expensive, um, and which is harming, of course, consumers and which has brought inflation up, that this might have a huge effect. But I would not expect that uh we will see inflation due to the transportation of goods, which has become much more expensive. Because I mean, we are talking about three or four percent of world trade in the in the Persian Gulf. Um, transports between Asia and the US, so Trans-Pacific, also Pacific, um, then uh Atlantic, Transatlantic from Europe to the US, uh, transports from South America to Asia, transports uh to and from Africa. Um, so this is working. So three to four percent are heavily affected, but this is not meaning that world trade is not running smoothly. Yeah, so I would not expect that we will see uh a huge effect on consumers due to that very regional crisis.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Would you say we're entering an era where resilience matters more than maximum efficiency in global shipping?

SPEAKER_01 24:34

I mean, efficiency will always be important, but resilience is something what we uh bitterly had to learn from COVID. And I think we learned a lot from COVID, you know, how to react when supply chains are not working anymore, how to find alternatives, how to better communicate with customers, how to bring transparency, full transparency to the customers. And I think resilience is key. Um, not only in crisis times, but also in normal times. You know, you have to learn from these crises and you have to bring resilience up. I think that's very important.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

What does strong leadership uh communication look like during a crisis?

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Um, yeah, I think uh what is extremely important is uh what we just talked about. It is resilience. I mean, we are overwhelmed with uh with questions and interview requests from all over the world, without any exception. I think what is key for us in these times is is uh full transparency, openness, authenticity, uh, bring the key information across, um, show how important seafarers are and shipping is to provide people with all the necessities they are having, um, and then um be open, right? I mean, lots of um lots of players in the industry like to hide away. I mean, shipping is not very famous for being the most transparent, proactively communicating industry. And I think this is something where we stand for, you know, this what I said authenticity, um, proactively uh communicating, being very open, don't hide away, you know, try to explain what is happening. This will also lead to the effect that people better understand the logistics industry and the difficulties and challenges this industry sometimes is having.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Nils, you mentioned at the top of the podcast before we actually came on air that it's a big birthday celebration this weekend in Hamburg Port, the 837th uh Hamburg Port anniversary.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yes, there's a big birthday in Hamburg, so Hamburg Port is is uh uh celebrating its 837th birthday. And uh there's a big party today on Friday, the 8th, but also the next day. It's also always a three-day um festival here in the city. One million people expected to celebrate lots of ships coming from different countries, being old sailing ships, being cruise ships, being of course container ships, because Hamburg is one of the biggest ports here in Europe. And it's a big celebration. Weather is good, so um, I would expect the city will be very full and the celebrations will be uh terrific.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Nils, thank you very much for taking the time out to chat with us on Supply Chain Ireland Podcast this morning. Enjoy the 837th Hamburg port anniversary this weekend in Hamburg.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Thank you very much. Have a great weekend as well, and thank you to all your listeners for listening to this.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Thank you, Nils. And that's it for this episode of Supply Chain Ireland Podcast. A big thank you to Nils Haupt from Hapachlide for joining us and sharing such valuable insight into the realities of global shipping and supply chain disruption. Thank you for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, share the episode, and follow Supply Chain Ireland Podcast for more conversations with industry leaders shaping the future of supply chain and logistics. Until the next time, take it easy, take care, and thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Bye-bye. You have been listening to Supply Chain Ireland Podcast. If you would like to get in touch with us, you can email studio at supply chain ireland podcast.ie. Stay up to date with the Supply Chain Ireland Podcast. Follow us on social media for news and new episodes. Email studio at Supply Chain Ireland Podcast.ie. This is Supply Chain Ireland Podcast with Kevin Byrne.