Nedlloyd

Two Dutch companies, Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN) was formed in 1870 and Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd (KRL) in 1875, providing passenger and mail services between North Europe and Indonesia and subsequently extended to the Far East. Within the Dutch East Indies, inter-island services were provided by the Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM), founded in Amsterdam in 1888. In 1908 the three companies had founded the Nederlandsche Scheepvaart Unie (NSU), a group designed to aid mutually benefical co-operation.

The NSU was replaced in 1920 by the Vereenigde Nederlandsche Scheepvaartmaatschappij (VNS), which took over the Holland-British India Line from Holland Amerika Lijn (HAL) and Van Ommeren, the Holland-Australia Line from Rotterdamsche Lloyd (RL), the Holland-East Asia Line from SMN and Nigoco and the Holland East Africa Line from KNSM. Shortly afterwards the Holland West Africa Line was added in conjunction with the Hollandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (HSM) and Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd (KHL). The VNS thus offered extensive liner services between Europe and the Far East, with new trading links between Europe, Middle East and South East Asia. 

In 1970, the four Dutch shipping companies joined forces to set up a 'new' Nederlandsche Scheepvaart Unie (NSU), comprising of:-

• Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN)
• Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd (KRL)
• Koninklijke Java-China-Paketvaart-Lijnen (KJCPL)
• Vereenigde Nederlandsche Scheepvaartmaatschappij (VNS)

In 1977 NSU changed its name to Koninklijke Nedlloyd Groep N.V. ("Royal Nedlloyd Group"), and in 1981 the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot-Maatschappij (KNSM) merged into the group. Nedlloyd itself later merged with P&O to become P&O Nedlloyd in 1996, which was iteself taken over by Maersk in 2005.

 

Dart Containerline

Dart Containerline was a consortium of comprising of Cie Maritime Belge (CMB), Bristol City Line and Clarke Traffic  Services of Montreal, Canada. The company was incorporated in Bermuda) and commenced operations in 1969 between Antwerp and Southampton in Europe and Halifax, New York and Norfolk in North America. The consortium initially deployed three chartered 210 teu German container ships to Halifax plus four 18,000 ton "Painter" class cargo ships with container capacity of 315 teu - JORDAENS, BREUGHEL, TENIERS and RUBENS - which had been launched in 1963/64 and operated by CMB to US ports. 

Dart started to deploy its purpose-built vessels in 1970, the 1,595 teu DART AMERICA owned by Clarke and her sister ship DART ATLANTIC owned by Bristol City Line and launched in 1971. Both these vessels were later owned by the Bibby Line, which acquired Bristol City Line in 1972. The third ship, DART EUROPE was owned by CMB.

Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) took over the Clarke shareholding in 1973 and the Bibby shareholding in 1980. In 1978, OOCL brought a fourth ship DART CANADA in order to stretch the service to Germany.

The consortium ceased operating in 1981 when the St Lawrence Coordinated Service (SLCS) was formed by OOCL (though its subsidiary Manchester Liners), CMB and CP Ships, and Halifax was dropped for the Canadian service in favour of Montreal. The DART AMERICA became the MANCHESTER CHALLENGE, the DART ATLANTIC the CP AMBASSADOR and the DART EUROPE the CMB EUROPE, while DART CANADA become the CANADIAN EXPLORER.

The SLCS continued to operated by the successor companies, Orient Overseas Container Line, which shed the Manchester Liners name in 1988, while CMB and CP Ships created a joint venture called CanMar (Canada Maritime) in 1984 which became fully owned by CP Ships in 1993. Hapag-Lloyd took over CP Ships in 2007.

Australia Japan Container Line (AJCL)

The Australia Japan Container Line (AJCL) was formed in August 1968 by Overseas Container Lines (OCL) with Australia West Pacific Line (AWPL) and Associated Container Transportation Limited (ACT - a combination of Ben Line, Blue Star Line, Cunard (Port Line), Ellerman Lines and the Harrison Line). 

The OCL stake in this group also included the historic partners China Navigation Co. and Eastern & Australan. In 1970, CNCo. chartered the Danish dry cargo vessel NANCHAN to AJCL - an arrangement that lasted 3 years until her sale. Thereafter AJCL operated two jointly-owned 1,150 TEU cellular container ships, ARIAKE and ARAFURA (II) in a consortium that also included some of the major Japanese lines. 

In 1987, P&O bought out Ocean Transport"s 53% share in OCL and became P&O Containers. In 1991 the joint venture services covered by AJCL and AAE were amalgamated to become P&O Swire Containers (POSC) in which Swire's held 26%. POSC operated ARAFURA (II) in a consortium with ANL, Mitsui OSK (MOL), NYK and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K line), serving Australia to North and East Asia.

Orient Overseas Container Line

Oriental Overseas Container Line (OOCL) was established in 1967 in Hong Kong by CY Tung. Its first fully cellular container ship was the 300 teu HONG KONG PRODUCER, an ex-Liberty ship converted in Hong Kong by the Whampoa Shipyard in 1969 which was used to transport containerized cargo across the Pacific. 

OOCL launched its first newly built fully cellular container ship of 1,200 TEU, ORIENTAL LEADER in 1971. OOCL listed as Orient Overseas (Holding) Limited (OOHL) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1973. 

The company acquired a one-third stake of Dart Line right after OOCL went public in 1973, which allowed it to enter the transatlantic trades. In 1973, OOCL also containerised its Far East-Europe service, teaming up with Japanese and European Lines to form the ACE Group. OOCL became the first Asian carrier to offer container services in the three main East-West trades. 

The group expanded further in 1980 when it acquired Furness Withy, the parent company of Manchester Liners which had a fleet of 50 ships in 1980. In 1981, OOCL acquired Seatrain's transpacific services. In 1984, OOCL took full control of Dart and launched the Canada Line in partnership with Canadian Pacific and CMB. 

As a result of the aggressive expansion, the Tung Group faced a deep financial crisis in 1985 with debts of US$2.7 Bn. It underwent a restructuring with support from mainland China interests, while also of disposing of non-core businesses, including Furness Withy which was sold in 1990 to Shaw Savill, a subsidiary of Hamburg-Sud.

OOCL came under the ownership of a new company, Oriental Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) which was a 65% subsidiary of the publicly traded OOHL while the remaining 35% belonging to Chinese interests through a Hong Kong company. Once the debt had been repayed, OOIL absorbed OOHL in 1992 and replaced it as the publicly quoted arm. In 1993, OOIL recorded a substantial profit of $127 M and was able to pay dividends for the first time in since 1985.

Blue Star Line

Blue Star Line was formed  on 28 July 1911 by the Vestey Brothers, a Liverpool-based importer of frozen meat from South America to Britain. Blue Star Line ordered their first new ship in 1914, and by the outbreak of the First World War were operating twelve refrigerated cargo ships. These were initially prefixed 'Brod', e.g. BRODFIELD, BRODHOLME and BRODLAND before the name format was altered in 1919 with the introduction of the 'Star' suffix to ship names, the first being ROYAL STAR. The company expanded its operations to include services to the Pacific coast of North America from 1920, and Australia and New Zealand from 1933. The Blue Star Line acquired Frederick Leyland and Company in 1935 and operated it as a subsidiary, while moving into passenger transport with the ordering of all-first class ships like ARANDORA STAR.

By 1939 Blue Star Line operated 39 ships. Many were requisitioned during the Second World War and the fleet suffered heavy losses, 29 ships being sunk. The Blue Star Line bought Lamport and Holt Line in 1944 and Booth Steamship Company in 1946.

Another building programme was enacted to replace wartime losses, supplemented by the purchase or hire of existing ships. In 1952 Austasia Line was formed to operate services between Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, while Blue Star Line took over the North American routes previously operated by the Donaldson Line in 1954. In 1957 Blue Star Line joined with three other shipping companies, the New Zealand Shipping Company, Port Line and Shaw, Savill & Albion to form the Crusader Shipping Company, and in 1965 entered a partnership with Italian shippers to form Calmeda S.p.A di Nav, Cagliari. Blue Star Line now had global interests, with ports of call on the Pacific North American coast, in Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South America and Italy. They were also one of the major shareholders, along with several other large shipping firms, in British United Airways.

Blue Star Line divested itself of its holdings in British United Airways in 1968 and became one of the founding partners that year in Associated Container Transportation (ACT). Blue Star Line gradually moved towards containerization, ending its passenger services to South America in 1972. Blue Star took over ACT's Pacific Australia Container Express (PACE) line which operated between the USA and Australia.

Blue Star Line was acquired by P&O Nedlloyd in 1998, which acquired the name and most of the assets, with the exception of most of the reefer ships, which were kept by the Vestey Group under the name Albion Reefers, and then merged with Hamburg Süd's reefer fleet under the name Star Reefers. Star Reefers was sold in July 2001 to Norwegian interests, and then subsequently merged with NYK Group as NYK Star Reefers Ltd.

The Blue Star Line ships acquired by P&O Nedlloyd, which included those operated as part of ACT, continued in service with P&O Nedlloyd under Blue Star Line names and liveries. Some of the original Blue Star vessels sold to P&O Nedlloyd traded until February 2003 on the West Coast of America to Australia and New Zealand. They were the AMERICA STAR (ex ACT 3), MELBOURNE STAR (ex ACT 4), SYDNEY STAR (ex ACT 5) and QUEENSLAND STAR (ex ACT 6). 

P&O Nedlloyd formed Reederei Blue Star in 2002 as a ship management company, from which it chartered ships. P&O Nedlloyd was acquired by the AP Moller Maersk Group in 2005 and merged into its operations to form Maersk Line. On 18 June 2009 Komrowski took over Reederei Blue Star GmbH from Maersk Ship Management. In July 2012, the Komrowski Group-owned Blue Star merged with Komrowski Befrachtungskontor and E.R. Schiffahrt to form The Blue Star Holding.

Evergreen

Evergreen Marine Corp. was established in Taiwan on 1 September 1968 by Chang Yung Fa, with a single 10,095 DWT cargo vessel, CENTRAL TRUST. It acquired two additional cargo vessels, AOSHIMA MARU and EIHO MARU, renamed EVER ISLAND and EVER STATE, in 1969. The EVER ISLAND was used to launch its first liner service in August 1968 - connecting the Far East with the Arabian-Persian Gulf.

It acquired its first newbuilding, the 15,000 DWT cargo vessel, EVER SAFETY, from the Hayashikane shipyard in January 1972 which was used to launch the Far East-Central/South America service.  

It built its first containership, the 646 teu EVER SPRING in July 1975, which was used to launch the Far East-US East Coast service. This was followed by the launch of the FE-US West Coast service in 1976. 

In March 1977, it started a container service on the FE/Caribbean route and in May 1978, it started a container service on the FE/Red Sea/Mediterranean route. In January, it also containerised the FE-Middle East service, with the converted cargo ship EVER PIONEER.

From the beginning, Evergreen operated outside of the traditional freight conferences. It also received the financial support of Marubeni Corp. in Japan.

In April 1979, Evergreen launched its Asia-Europe service, deploying the 1,214 teu EVER VITAL. 

In 1982, Evergreen launched a program to build 24 G-type containerships of 2,728 teu aimed at their planned twin round-the-world (RTW) services. The RTW services were launched in July 1984.

Zim

Zim Israel Navigation Co. was founded in June 1945 by the Jewish Agency (45%), the Histadrut (45%), and the Palestine Maritime League (10%) in order to build a merchant fleet that would make the prospective Jewish state independent of foreign shipping and to carry the large number of refugees and immigrants to Israel in the immediate post-war years. 

In 1959 the government became a one-third partner in the company and in 1965 its share rose to 80%. By the late sixties, it expanded its cargo liner services and developed its presence as an operator of bulk carriers, refrigerated ships and tankers and gave up its passenger shipping business. 

The Israel Corp acquired a 48.9% stake in Zim in 1969 and launched its first container shipping service in 1971. The Ofer Group acquired a 53% share in Israel Corp in 1999, giving it control of Zim. The government retained a 48.6% stake in Zim which was eventually sold in January 2004 to the Israel Corp, which raised its stake in Zim to 97.5%. The stake has increased to 99.7% by June 2012 following several rounds of capital injections.