Igus Buys Krott as Shore Power Moves Into the Connection Layer
Igus’s takeover of Krott Electronic looks modest on paper. Krott has seven employees and operates in a specialist corner of industrial connection technology. The strategic point is larger: as shore power scales, the value is moving from individual components toward integrated, harsh-environment systems that can survive real port operations.
gus will acquire Krott Electronic GmbH, based in Stolberg, with effect from 1 October 2026. Krott will be integrated into igus SE & Co. KG, its employees will join igus, and Jan Krott will remain with the business to lead a new special solutions unit for connection technology.
The transaction gives igus a tighter grip on a part of the shore power chain that is easy to understate and expensive to get wrong. Igus already sells energy chain systems, chainflex cables and mobile shore power concepts. Krott adds customised plug systems, connection housings and assembly work for low- and medium-voltage applications, fibre optics, data communication and ATEX-certified products.
That combination matters because the shore power market is entering a less forgiving phase. European regulation is pulling container and passenger vessels toward OPS use from 2030 at major ports. Ports and terminal operators are moving from pilots to procurement. Once the civil works, transformers and grid interface are in place, the day-to-day problem becomes mechanical and electrical repeatability: how the connection is positioned, protected, handled, monitored, repaired and adapted to vessels that do not all present the same interface.
Igus has been building toward that position for years. The company says it has equipped its 2,000th ship-to-shore crane with e-chain cable carrier systems, and it has positioned its crane systems as alternatives to festoons, busbars and reel systems. In port applications, that experience matters because the same operating pressures keep returning: long travel distances, exposure to weather, high movement cycles, limited downtime windows and constant pressure to reduce maintenance.
The acquisition extends that logic from moving cables to terminating and connecting them. Krott’s value is not scale; it is specialisation. Ports, offshore assets, tunnel projects, mining, oil and gas, charging infrastructure and heavy industrial sites often need connection solutions that sit outside catalogue simplicity. The hardware may be small relative to a full shore power project, but the operational consequence of a poor interface can be large: delayed connection, safety intervention, damaged cable, degraded data communication or a system that works only under ideal conditions.
Shore power has already shown why the connection layer deserves more attention. Fixed outlets can leave berth operations constrained by vessel position. Mobile cable management systems solve part of the problem but shift attention to the reliability of socket boxes, connectors, housings, automation, communication and protection in a public, corrosive, high-load environment. Igus’s iMSPO concept addresses the mobility side by moving a socket box and energy chains along a rail system; Krott gives igus more depth in the customised connection technology around that moving point.
The commercial implication is straightforward. Ports are not buying shore power equipment only once; they are buying availability. A system that can connect a vessel faster, tolerate harsher use, simplify maintenance or serve more berth positions can improve utilisation and shorten the route to tariff recovery. In that context, connection technology stops being a procurement detail and becomes part of the business case.
The references already point in that direction. PowerCon lists igus among the cable-management specialists used in shore power projects and notes igus energy-chain involvement in major European installations. Copenhagen’s cruise project is described by PowerCon as a 4 x 16 MVA installation across five berths, with the energy-chain solution subcontracted from igus. Rotterdam’s 16 MVA cruise shore power system uses a mobile underground connection box from igus that can run the length of the berth. Hamburg’s Eurogate and Altenwerder container-terminal shore power systems, each listed by PowerCon as 8 MVA across three berths, also use igus energy-chain CMS technology.
Those references show why igus wants a broader systems position. Cruise and container OPS projects are not converging on one simple layout. Some ports use above-ground boxes, some underground boxes, some mobile vehicles, some rail-based systems, some containerised conversion equipment, and some integrated buildings to protect footprint or aesthetics. The supplier that can adapt the physical and electrical connection package to each berth layout is better placed than the supplier that only delivers one part of the chain.
The Krott deal also touches a second growth market: high-power charging for heavy vehicles and machinery. Igus explicitly links the acquisition to charging infrastructure as well as shore power. That overlap is important. Ports are beginning to electrify ship connections, cargo-handling equipment, yard vehicles and heavy road transport at the same time. The boundary between maritime OPS, terminal electrification and heavy-duty charging will become less tidy as ports build common grid upgrades, substations, cable routes and control systems.
A small acquisition can therefore carry strategic weight. Krott gives igus a route to keep more of the application-specific engineering inside the group. It also gives customers fewer seams between cable guidance, cables, connection housings, plugs, data lines and special assemblies. That may matter most in retrofit projects, where berth geometry, existing electrical rooms, public access, vessel mix and civil constraints rarely match the assumptions of a clean-sheet design.
The open question is how far igus wants to move up the systems stack. The company is not becoming a full shore power EPC by buying Krott. Power conversion, grid connection, civil works and operating contracts remain separate disciplines. But igus is strengthening the layer between the electrical system and the vessel interface, and that layer will become more valuable as ports demand flexible connection points rather than static infrastructure.
For the shore power supply chain, the signal is clear. Hardware categories are beginning to merge. Cable management, connector design, mobile outlets, automation, sensing, safety and serviceability are no longer separate procurement boxes. They are the parts of one utilisation problem. Igus’s purchase of Krott is small in headcount but pointed in strategy: the next round of OPS competition will reward suppliers that can make the connection itself less fragile.
