About Schifffahrt und Technik

Schifffahrt und Technik

Schifffahrt und Technik, widely known by its initials SUT, is a German trade magazine for inland shipping and intermodal transport logistics, published eight times a year. It covers the world of barges, ports, and combined transport: shipping policy and modal shift, ports and terminals, rail and waterways, vessel technology and alternative propulsion, and the companies that move freight between seaports and the European hinterland. Published by the Binnenschifffahrts-Verlag, the magazine combines on-site reporting by experienced transport journalists with company portraits and regional specials, and it operates the schifffahrtundtechnik.de news portal.

Overview

SUT positions itself as the specialist magazine for hinterland logistics, a term that captures its editorial territory: everything that happens after a container leaves the ocean vessel, or before it reaches one. Inland vessels on the Rhine, Danube, and Europe's canal network, inland ports and terminals, rail connections, and the combined-transport operators that knit these modes together form the core of its coverage. The magazine appears eight times a year and is also available as an e-paper, with an annual subscription priced around sixty-four euros before tax.

The editorial approach emphasizes field reporting. The magazine's journalists research on location, at ports, terminals, shipyards, and aboard vessels, and write in a direct style aimed at practitioners: barge operators, terminal managers, logistics executives, shipping companies, and the policymakers who regulate inland navigation. Company portraits and "on-site research" features give readers insight into how terminals, carriers, and technology providers actually operate, while regional specials examine the logistics landscapes of particular corridors and port regions.

In 2026 the magazine introduced two editorial innovations: a newly constituted advisory board of industry experts to accompany the newsroom, and a central cover story in every issue devoted to a major sector theme. The year's opening cover topic, new fuels and alternative propulsion in inland shipping, reflects the dominant question facing the industry: how a fleet of long-lived diesel vessels meets tightening emission limits and EU climate targets through options such as HVO, LNG, methanol, hydrogen, and electrification.

History

Schifffahrt und Technik was founded in 1982 by the publishers Rüdiger Krüpfganz, responsible for editorial and advertising, and Alfred Jüngling, responsible for design and layout, as a specialist newspaper for inland shipping under the original spelling Schiffahrt und Technik. From the outset it was internationally oriented: as early as 1983 it reported on the international inland-shipping fair in Moscow. The thematic range soon expanded beyond ship technology toward seagoing shipping and the port economy.

From 1986 the trained lawyer Rüdiger Krüpfganz, a shipping enthusiast since childhood who spoke six languages and brought deep specialist knowledge acquired over three generations, ran the magazine alone and drove its expansion across the German-speaking readership. Krüpfganz died on 26 May 1998 at the age of forty-four. The Verlag Dr. Neufang/Th. Mann of Gelsenkirchen, which had printed the magazine for several years, took over the Krüpfganz publishing house in June 1998. Corina Pommer became editor-in-chief in June 1998, followed by Andreas Fröning from January 2000 to March 2001; Hans-Wilhelm Dünner, who had accompanied the magazine in various roles since its founding, took over the editorship in April 2001 and has since overseen the expansion of its thematic range and specialist newsroom.

The magazine is today published by the Binnenschifffahrts-Verlag, the specialist publishing house for inland shipping, which sells the title by subscription through its shop. The current editor-in-chief is Gerhard Grünig. At the start of 2026 the magazine established a new advisory board on his initiative, bringing together figures including Markus Bangen, chairman of the Duisburger Hafen board, representatives of combined-transport research and the barge cooperative DTG, and industry executives, to keep the editorial program closely aligned with sector developments. The magazine has also become a media partner of PRO Binnenschifffahrt, the visibility initiative organized by the Federal Association of German Inland Shipping, committing to joint cross-media communication that highlights the economic and ecological importance of inland navigation.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's standing topics map the intermodal transport chain. Transport policy and modal shift coverage follows the political framework for moving freight from road to water and rail, including infrastructure investment, waterway maintenance, and the regulatory debates that shape the industry's competitiveness. Ports and terminals reporting examines the inland ports of the Rhine-Ruhr region and beyond, their expansion projects, handling technology, and digitalization.

Technology coverage focuses on the vessel itself: engine technology, alternative fuels and propulsion systems, hull and equipment innovation, and the digital tools entering wheelhouse and fleet management. Combined and intermodal transport reporting tracks the operators, services, and commercial developments linking seaports with inland destinations. Company portraits and on-site features provide the narrative journalism, while the regional specials survey the logistics geography of specific areas.

The 2026 program illustrates the editorial priorities: the cover-story series on alternative propulsion, the advisory board's industry input, and the PRO Binnenschifffahrt partnership's emphasis on making the sector's performance visible to the public and to policymakers. For an industry that often describes itself as overlooked despite carrying a substantial share of European freight, a magazine that argues its case in public is part of the advocacy infrastructure.

Heavy-lift and project logistics form another distinctive strand of the coverage. The movement of oversized industrial components, from wind-turbine parts to factory modules, depends on the combination of inland vessels, specialized road transport, and crane capacity at inland ports, and the magazine follows the companies and technologies that make these transports possible. Personnel and training topics also feature, as the sector faces the same demographic pressures as the wider logistics industry and competes for young talent against more visible professions.

Organization and Ownership

Schifffahrt und Technik is published by the Binnenschifffahrts-Verlag, the specialist publishing house serving German inland shipping, which handles subscriptions and operates the magazine's shop. The editorial leadership rests with editor-in-chief Gerhard Grünig, supported since 2026 by the industry advisory board. The newsroom's contact address uses the tecvia.com domain, reflecting the publishing group's digital infrastructure.

The magazine's business model follows the specialist-press pattern: subscriptions from industry professionals and companies, advertising from ports, terminals, shipping companies, equipment manufacturers, and service providers, and special publications around industry themes. The media partnership with PRO Binnenschifffahrt adds a cooperative dimension, with cross-media content distribution across online and print channels serving both the magazine's reach and the initiative's visibility goals.

Digital Presence

The schifffahrtundtechnik.de portal is the magazine's online newsroom, publishing daily updates on inland shipping, ports, combined transport, and logistics, organized by topic tags from heavy-lift logistics to country reports. The portal describes itself as the online home of the eight-times-yearly magazine, with practice-experienced journalists reporting on logistics in sea and inland ports, combined transport, shipping companies, freight traffic, and heavy-lift logistics.

The site's tag-based archive makes the magazine's reporting searchable by subject, serving professionals who need background on specific corridors, companies, or technologies. E-paper editions extend the print issues to digital readers, and the PRO Binnenschifffahrt partnership envisions intensified content exchange across the online and print channels. For a sector whose practitioners are geographically dispersed along Europe's waterways, the portal's continuous news flow complements the print magazine's analytical depth. Newsletter formats round out the digital offering, delivering the week's most important inland-shipping stories directly to subscribers' inboxes each working morning.