Yorck Niclas Prehm

Head of Market Intelligence Toepfer Transport

Yorck Niclas Prehm did not set out to become one of the more knowledgeable voices in Multipurpose and Heavylift shipping — it simply happened over the course of more than two decades working every corner of the market. And like so many who find their way into this business, he will tell you that once it gets under your skin, it never really lets you go. Over that time, he has held senior positions in Sales, Chartering, Tonnage Procurement, Project Management and Market Analysis with leading breakbulk carriers, shipowners and brokers — a breadth of experience that has given him a deep instinct for where commercial reality and market data meet.

Since 2019, Niclas has served as Head of Market Intelligence at Toepfer Transport GmbH, the Hamburg-based boutique shipbroker whose research department has earned a reputation well beyond its size. There, he has found his natural habitat: deep in the data, tracking the quiet signals that move the market — charter rate fluctuations, fleet utilisation trends, orderbook dynamics — and turning them into analysis that practitioners actually rely on. He is the custodian of the Toepfer Multipurpose Shipping Index — developing, maintaining and safeguarding the integrity and quality of a benchmark the sector has come to depend on — and the editorial force behind Toepfer’s quarterly Multipurpose and monthly European Shortsea Shipping Reports.

Also recognised as an expert witness in commercial maritime dispute resolution and member of the German Maritime Arbitration Association, Niclas brings analytical precision, grounded market judgment, and, it should be said, a genuine enthusiasm for every minute of it.