Letting Clients Steer the Course

By Luke King

Dominik Stehle, managing director of SAL Heavy Lift, speaks exclusively to Breakbulk about navigating geopolitical pressures, adapting to fast-changing project landscapes and why strong client relationships remain the cornerstone of success in the heavy-lift sector.

From Issue 3, 2025 of Breakbulk Magazine.

(8-minute read)

“When the sun is out, Hamburg is a beautiful place,” Domnik Stehle tells me from SAL Heavy Lift’s head office in the northern German city. On a cold day in mid-March, there was no sign of sunshine, but SAL’s newly-appointed managing director was in good spirits, nevertheless.

Stehle’s voyage from his hometown in southern Germany to Hamburg in the far north was rather indirect – via Texas, Florida and Japan – he explains. “I grew up close to the border with Switzerland on Lake Constance, which is very scenic, with the Alps in the background.

“It was a beautiful place to grow up as a kid but a friend of mine went to sail on a military ship for the German Navy and, when he came back from these trips, he always told stories and so I wanted to enter the Navy as well.

“I completed my military service in the Germany Navy and went to a place located at the far opposite of where I grew up, to the island of Sylt, which is the northernmost island in Germany. After that, I decided to study shipping and logistics in Bremen, because I wanted to see the world. I wanted to branch out and basically do something different compared to what my friends did at the time.”

His first overseas posting came in 2005 when he accepted a job at Dockwise (later Boskalis) in their yacht transportation division, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

“They told me to take a flight down to Genoa, Italy, board a ship and sail over – so that’s what I did. I arrived in Fort Lauderdale and my responsibility was basically to look after the markets in the Caribbean, Europe, and in the South Pacific, but that’s a very seasonal business. I signed booking notes in marinas, that’s how I entered the shipping industry.”

In 2009, a move to deugro followed. Besides a one-year stint in Japan, he spent most of his time with the project forwarder in Houston, Texas. “My task was to build up that company to become the leader in the U.S. market,” he says.

“In a place like Houston, you learn a lot about clients. You learn a lot about the industry due to the complexity of the work you see by talking to these clients, by spending time with them. So I’ve always been a very client-focused person.”

Procurement Shift

Keeping his clients close, Stehle soon noticed a shift in the way customers wanted to do business.

“The way these large-scale projects were awarded was changing in terms of the complexity of the scope of services and what was awarded to the forwarder, versus what was awarded to the carrier and the heavy-lift, heavy-haul companies.” In particular, the shift was related to how projects were awarded to the EPC companies by the project owners, he said.

“In the past, it was all based on cost-reversible contracts, so the EPC made their money by putting as many people as possible on these jobs, charging the project owner a fee per day, per person and the procurement was done with a very thin margin.

“Then, the Asian EPCs moved in and targeted the traditional markets where the western EPCs were already active. They asked the project owners: Why do you do this? Why can’t you award this contract on a lump-sum basis? We’ll build you that refinery for US$5 billion, for example, and if we exceed that price we lose money – but if we end up below, it’s our profit.”

Western EPCs were rapidly forced to adapt to that model, Stehle recalls, but they didn’t have the experience in executing lump-sum contracts – prompting a number of them to partner with their peers in Japan. “There were these famous connections between Fluor and JGC, or McDermott and Chiyoda, for example; companies would team up to learn from each other in order to get the pricing right and try to make money in this lump sum environment.

“That kind of transformed the market in the U.S. and, all of a sudden, large-scale contracts and high revenue services were now awarded directly to carriers and heavy-haul companies, often bypassing a freight forwarder. Every dollar saved in procurement went straight down to the bottom line. That’s the point when we sat down and worked on the idea of dship Carriers – we were looking for another vehicle that could be put in front of the customers in order to still retain the business.”

Stehle was a founding member of dship in 2014, and moved to Hamburg two years later to progress the ship-owning arm of the German freight forwarder. New Global Norm “I decided to leave the deugro Group in 2019 when lump sum quoting had become the global norm, as had the new way of directly awarding business to the asset-owning transportation providers,” Stehle says.

“That was not only the case in the U.S. – it also applies to more traditional markets like Japan and Korea. When you looked at the carrier industry, I would say it was rather reactive in the sense that they responded to the inquiries and tenders they received. But if you want to be successful with large-scale projects, you need to be a lot more proactive and start your engagement process much earlier.

“That process begins months, if not years, before a tender is even issued. It’s crucial to engage with these clients much earlier. And that’s something that the forwarders were much better at, as they stayed closer to their customers. They knew a lot of things that the carriers didn’t necessarily know.

“Carriers tend to focus on their assets, while the world of project forwarding revolves around clients. I always felt that if you bring the commercial approach of a project forwarder to a carrier, that’s the ideal scenario – not only for the client, but also for the carrier itself. I feel the companies best positioned for these logistics challenges in the future will be those that really have control over assets.”

After leaving deugro, Stehle spent 18 months as chief commercial officer at Zeamarine, the ill-fated shipping line formed in 2018 through the merger of Zeaborn Chartering, Intermarine and Rickmers-Linie. At its peak, the company operated a fleet of over 85 vessels, but expanded too quickly and declared insolvency in 2020, with the majority of its assets and personnel absorbed by other heavy-lift shipping companies, including United Heavy Lift, dship Carriers and BBC Chartering.

Remaining in Hamburg, Stehle would serve as chief commercial officer at United Heavy Lift for more than four years.

A New Start at SAL

He took up his new role as managing director of SAL Heavy Lift – part of the 70-vessel-strong JSI Alliance that comprises Jumbo, SAL and Intermarine – in February 2025 and had only been in post for less than a month when we met in March.

“It’s been an intense couple of weeks,” he said. “I’d say I’m listening a lot. I’ve spoken with a lot of people, and though my initial work is still ongoing, I’m very impressed. SAL is a very solid company.”

Founded in 1980, SAL is now owned by Harren Group, a Bremen-based shipping and logistics group that acquired the shipping line in 2017. Its portfolio also includes Combi Lift, a project freight forwarder. Additionally, the Harren Group owns Intermarine, the Americas liner service specialist.

“When I accepted the position here, what impressed me very much is how financially independent this company is, which is not necessarily the standard of the industry,” says Stehle. “Our balance sheet is very healthy and we are prepared for something that will become necessary in the future – namely fleet renewal.

“Shipping is a very capital-intensive business so in order to participate you need to have a lot of money to even be part of the market. When it comes to fleet renewal, my philosophy is not to make decisions based on what worked well in the past, but rather to make decisions based on what will work, or what may work best in the future.

“Market conditions change very quickly in this industry so before we even come to future fuels and the environmental aspect, I think what we have in mind is to design vessels and build our own market – a market that maybe doesn’t exist yet. And if you have the right ships, clients start designing their equipment, what they want to transport, based on your specifications.”

For Stehle, this goes back to the importance of knowing your client. “Designing a new ship, there are so many things you have to consider. And you can only do that if you talk to the customers, know your customers, know what they have in mind, know how they see the future.

“In the past, a lot of ships were built based on decisions made by banks, decisions driven by finance, but actually very detached from the market.”

Ultra-Efficient Vessels

When it comes to new vessels, Stehle says SAL has “other designs in the drawer,” beyond what has been publicly announced.

What is known is that SAL will receive at least five new generation heavy-lift ships built at Wuhu Shipyard, China, and described as “ultra-efficient vessels that set the benchmark in terms of emissions and technical capabilities.” A launch ceremony was held to inaugurate SAL’s first delivery, MV Elise, at Wuhu late last year.

“First of all, they’re equipped with two very strong cranes of 800 tonnes each,” says Stehle, “allowing us to lift pieces up to 1,600 tonnes. We don’t want to replace ships that we have – we want to build something new.

“When you compete in that 500-tonne segment, you compete with everybody. It’s my philosophy to build vessels that capture most of the market, which is a very difficult thing to do. But if you have a ship that can pretty much handle 95% of the market, then that’s a perfect ship, in my opinion.”

While flexibility is a priority, SAL’s Orca class vessels have clearly been designed to carry wind cargoes that are ever-increasing in size, as well as other voluminous components such as modules. In fact, the first two Orca deliveries are exclusively used for the transportation of offshore wind turbine components in a long-term partnership with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.

In terms of alternative fuel adoption, there’s no certainty – at least for now. “There are alternatives to heavy fuel oil, but the infrastructure remains the issue,” says Stehle. “We tramp around, we go to places that some people have never heard of before and we have to be able to take bunkers there.

“If the infrastructure is not there, it leaves us with very few options. We are not like a container carrier that goes from A to B and can always plan ahead, so that doesn’t work that well in our business.

“The engines we have on the Orcas are ready for alternative fuels, but for the time being it will have to be the traditional fuel that most carriers in our segment are using. That being said, these vessels are super-efficient: they burn around only a third of what comparable older ships of that size do.”

Competitive Advantage

It’s well documented that the project shipping sector is doing brisk business at present, but it’s not all smooth sailing. In the U.S., President Trump is contemplating imposing steep fees on Chinese-built ships calling American ports – to say nothing of the reciprocal tariff regime he introduced in April.

“Looking ahead, geopolitical events could change everything overnight,” says Stehle. “The fees on Chinese-built vessels could have a huge impact and, in my opinion, freight rates to the U.S. could skyrocket if nobody wants to go there anymore and they can’t compete.

“And, as a result, these vessels will then compete in other markets, and there will be an oversupply elsewhere.”

Stehle may, however, have spotted a silver lining in any U.S. action targeting Chinese-built ships. “We are lucky in the respect that a large portion of our fleet was not built in China. Depending on what is decided, that could give us a competitive edge. Our older fleet could, all of a sudden, start to become an advantage, at least for trading to the U.S.”

Stehle also has an eye on the promising offshore installation sector. “This is where we want to take this company – expanding our service offering by installing offshore wind transition pieces and other similar cargo.

“Some of our ships are fitted with the dynamic positioning systems that allow us to compete for these installations and, for us, it’s not a very competitive sector because the alternatives that these clients have cost many times more.”

Notwithstanding, Stehle says there is “nothing that could compensate for wind.”

“The entire industry, not only us, but all MPV carriers, are dependent on transporting wind and renewable cargoes. Whether it’s blades, towers, nacelles, monopods, transition pieces – we all depend on wind.”

Stehle admits to feeling “a little bit concerned” about developments in the sector. “There will be demand going forward. Wind farms will be built for many years to come, but historically it has been the Western companies such as Siemens, Vestas, GE, that have been successful in that market.

“But now the Chinese are moving in and progressing in the same way they are in the car industry. They can move fast and I do wonder about the competitiveness of the Western wind manufacturers.

“The Chinese have now received permission to deliver offshore wind farms in Europe, which is something they were very far away from, until recently. It’s not clear if European-based shipping lines are going to get this business from China.”

Planning for the Future

All of the uncertainty around geopolitics, trade restrictions and customer demand is making planning for the future difficult for project cargo carriers. “We have to make decisions based on what we know now,” says a pragmatic Stehle.

“We cannot base our decisions on assumptions around how policy will be changed in the future and what kind of fuels will be available in 15 years from now. I mean, if you try and plan for every scenario, you will never build a ship.

“At some point, you have to make a decision based on what you know, what you expect and what you can foresee in the future. And it’s not only the ship, the infrastructure around it plays a big role and that can only be changed by the politicians and administrations around the world.

“I do feel like there’s one regulation after the other being introduced. We’re not even done explaining one regulation to a customer and then there’s the other one. Europe’s producing industry is suffering and needs stimulating measures. Germany has now decided to invest one trillion euros in all kinds of projects, also with the goal to boost the military and producing industries.

“Imbalanced trade lanes have always been there, but there were markets that were more balanced than they are now. You always had good voyages from Asia to Europe, and okay voyages back from Europe to Asia. Now, we have only good voyages from Asia to Europe.”

Looking ahead, Stehle says Intermarine is likely to become an Americas-only brand, while the SAL name has increasingly more visibility in the rest of the world. On the prospect of growing the JSI Alliance, he says: “This industry works like a roller coaster. Either you make a lot of money or you lose everything you have, right? There’s not much in between.

“I would not rule out expanding the alliance, I would not rule out the acquisition of other companies, maybe in lieu of building ships on our own. You can’t rule out anything in this industry.”

Before our interview wraps up, I ask Stehle what he likes to do when he’s not working. Free time is scarce, he says, since he and his wife have two young children – and another on the way. “I like to fish, whenever time allows it. I like to be in the mountains, I like to hike and cycle, and I’m a very social person,” he adds.

“We’ve been living in Hamburg for a couple of years and I love the city. It’s got everything I want, maybe apart from the weather! But I like it here, I’ve made my home here, and this is where I would like to stay.”

The JSI Alliance, deugro, dship Carriers, United Heavy Lift and BBC Chartering will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Europe 2025 on 13-15 May at Rotterdam Ahoy.