Port authorities of Rotterdam and Duisburg honoured with Brost-Ruhr Prize 2025
Reading time: 3 minutes
Boudewijn Siemons and Markus Bangen, CEOs of the ports of Rotterdam and Duisburg, have been honoured with the prestigious Brost-Ruhr Prize 2025. The laudatory speech was given by Nathanael Liminski, Minister for Federal and European Affairs, International Affairs, and Media, and Head of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The German Brost Foundation presents this award annually to individuals and organisations that have made an exceptional contribution to the Ruhr region. Siemons and Bangen received the award for their contribution to strengthening economic ties between the Netherlands and the Ruhr region. The prize is accompanied by a cash award of €20,000 per person, which must be spent on a charitable cause in the Ruhr region. Both ports have decided to donate the money to the Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft (DLRG), an organisation dedicated to preventing drowning deaths on beaches, lakes, and rivers. Markus Bangen is patron of the DLRG in Duisburg.
The jury justified its choice as follows: ‘The ports of Duisburg and Rotterdam have been closely linked for decades by rail, inland waterways, road transport and pipelines. The largest inland port in the world and the largest seaport in Europe form the backbone of European freight transport and play a key role in the energy transition.’
Boudewijn Siemons, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority: “It is a great honour to receive the Brost-Ruhr Prize together with Markus Bangen. Making industry and logistics more sustainable requires enormous efforts, and we can only achieve this by working together and keeping the entire logistics chain in mind. It is no longer about the quantity of the throughput we handle, but about how we can jointly contribute to a sustainable future for logistics and industry in Europe.”
Markus Bangen, CEO duisport: “The Brost-Ruhr Prize is a special recognition for the many employees who work passionately in both ports, both large and small, for the common good. This award also underscores the importance of our strong partnership with the Port of Rotterdam. Together, we have been creating an efficient, sustainable, and resilient logistics chain for years, strengthening the Ruhr region as an economic region and opening up new opportunities for companies in times of transformation and change.”
The two ports have been working together for decades. Already in 2020 and 2022, the ports formalised the cooperation by signing letters of intent for joint projects in the areas of hinterland development, digitalisation and energy transition. Successes to date include cooperation with the Brazilian port of Pecém for the transport of green energy to Europe and progress in connecting the RheinPorts and Portbase digital port community systems. The existing cooperation was expanded last month with plans to jointly develop more sustainable transport corridors and future-proof initiatives for the energy transition, including the export of CO2 from Duisburg to Rotterdam. For this purpose, a third declaration was signed in the presence of the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst.
In addition to the energy transition, the future of logistics is also central to the cooperation between the two port managers. The shortage of skilled labour is noticeable in the sector. Inland shipping, which connects the ports via the Rhine, is particularly close to the CEOs' hearts. Both have therefore joined the initiative for sustainable Rhine shipping. In Duisburg, the first pilot projects for the remote control of inland vessels are also underway. Ideally, these should one day be able to sail to Rotterdam.
