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.

United States Lines (USL)

United States Lines (USL) entered the container trades in March 1966, when the AMERICAN RACER launched the first scheduled container service across the Atlantic together with four other converted 13,300 dwt C-4 cargo ships, each of which could carry about 150 TEU. 

USL received eight AMERICAN LANCER-class 1,210 teu containerships in 1968-71 which were deployed on its Transpacific services. It also acquired a series of eight C-4 cargo ships which were lengthened and converted into 1,027 teu containerships in 1970-71 for deployment on the Transatlantic. See link.

Walter Kiddie & Co. acquired USL in January 1969 and gradually disposed of its remaining passenger liner services.

In October 1969, Sea-Land announced a deal to lease USL's 16 containerships for $61 M a year for 20 years. The deal would have made Sea-Land the largest carrier on both the Atlantic and the Pacific, and came under strong opposition from other US flagged carriers. The deal was called off in November 1970. Sea-Land then tried to take over USL and operate it as a stand-alone entity. Although the deal was approved by the FMC in January 1973, it was thwarted by antitrust concerns.

In April 1977, Malcolm McLean acquired USL for $160 M, of which $50 M went to pay off debts. By 1985, USL controlled the largest containership fleet in the world after acquiring two competitors (Moore McCormick Lines and Delta Steamship Lines) in 1982 and taking delivery of 12 newly built 4,234 teu Econships in 1984-85. 

However, just as the new Econships were delivered, freight rates fell and USL suspended all services and filed for bankruptcy on 24 November 1986. Most of its vessels were sold to Sea-Land in the reorganization plan filed on 5 July 1988. The company was formally liquidated by 1992.

The USL name was revived briefly in 2000 and 2001, as a brand name of American Classic Voyages but in October 2001, the company filed for bankruptcy. 

In May 2003, the USL name was restarted by Ed Aldridge. USL launched a China-LA service using five ships of 1,300-1,600 teu in December 2003. It teamed up with Great Western and Maruba to form the 'Americas Alliance'  in February 2005 to operate on the transpacific with five 1,600-2,200 teu ships but the partnership was terminated in January 2006 after Great Western ceased trading. USL continued to serve the transpacific trade on its own with 1,100 teu ships and slots from other carriers before launching a new ANZL service to offer FE-US-ANZ-FE services. In August 2006, ANL joined the service which employed eight ships of 1,100-1,350 teu, seven of which chartered by USL and one by ANL.

USL was finally acquired by CMA CGM in December 2007.

Ellerman Lines

Ellerman Lines was formed in 1901, with its roots from the fleet of Frederick Leyland and Bibby Line that was acquired by John Ellerman in 1892 with partners Christopher Furness and Henry O'Hagan. Ellerman took over the Liverpool firm, West India & Pacific Steamship in 1900. In 1901 Ellerman sold his fleet to J.P. Morgan, the American financier, whose aim was to establish a world-wide shipping combine, the International Mercantile Marine.  Ellerman arranged to buy back the ships serving the Mediterranean, Portugal, Montreal and Antwerp.  He augmented his new fleet by the purchase of the Papayanni City and Hall Lines in 1901.  These formed a new company, Ellerman Lines Ltd.  Westcott and Laurance, which traded from London to the Mediterranean, was purchased in 1902, and Bucknall, trading to South Africa, in 1908.

The larger of the purchased lines remained distinct units after their acquisition.  In 1916 the Wilson Line of Hull was purchased by Ellerman.  The group lost ships in the First World War and weathered the financial crises of the interwar period.  Ellerman died in 1933.  By 1939 the group owned 109 ships, of which 58 were lost in the Second World War.  The ships were replaced but trading became more difficult with the introduction of containerisation.

In 1966 Ellerman joined the Associated Container Lines (ACT) consortium and started the successful containerisation of the Mediterranean services.  In 1973 the group, which by now, had many other interests beyond shipping, including hotels, brewing and printing, merged all its shipping companies into one division.  Ten years later the whole business was sold to the Barclay brothers after making heavy losses.  In 1985 the shipping business was purchased by its management, then sold to Trafalgar House to become Cunard-Ellerman in 1987, and in 1991, it was sold to the Andrew Weir Shipping Group.

In December 2002, Hamburg Sud acquired the NW Europe-Med and NW Europe-Middle East trades of Andrew Weir, which were traded under the Ellerman Lines brand. The Ellerman name was officially dropped in January 2005.

Cunard Line

Cunard began its participation in container shipping in 1966, when it became a partner in the multinational consortia Atlantic Container Lines (ACL) and, through its subsidiary the Port Line, Associated Container Transportation (ACT).

Trafalgar House, a diversified investment company, acquired Cunard in August 1971.   

Cunard acquired Ellerman Lines in 1987 to form Cunard-Ellerman. Its stake in ACL was sold in 1989 while the remaining shipping interests were sold to Andrew Weir Shipping in 1991 after Cunard decided to abandon cargo shipping to focus on cruise shipping.

Pan-Atlantic

Malcolm McLean acquired the Pan-Atlantic Steamship Corporation in January 1955 from Waterman Steamship for $7 million with seven C-2 cargo ships included in the sale. 

McLean then acquired two T-2 tankers through Pan-Atlantic and refitted them with spar decks to carry trailers. The two converted T-2 tankers, IDEAL X and ALMENA, which can carry 58 trailer units of 33 feet length on deck, became the world's first containerships when they entered service in April 1956. Together with two more converted T-2 tankers (MAXTON and COALINGA HILLS), they were deployed on Pan-Atlantic's Port Newark-Houston coastal service.

The T-2 tankers were replaced by six converted C-2 cargo ships that entered service in 1957. The converted C-2 ships can carry 226 containers of 35 feet length, stacked four high in the holds and two high on deck, and were fitted with two movable gantry cranes for self sustained cargo operations. The Port Newark-Houston service was expanded with an additional service calling Port Newark, Miami, New Orleans, Tampa, Port Newark in 1957 and a service to Puerto Rico in 1958.

From 1960, the Pan-Atlantic name was dropped and McLean adopted the name Sea-Land Service.

 

P&O Container Ltd (P&OCL)

P&O was a leader in the containerization movement with the development of Overseas Containers Ltd. (OCL), which was established in 1965 by 4 British shipping companies (P&O with Ocean Steamship, British & Commonwealth and Furness Withy). In 1986 P&O purchased the remaining shares of OCL that was not already owned by it, switching the name to P&O Containers Ltd. 

In December 1996 P&O Containers merged with Royal Nedlloyd (Nedlloyd Line) to form a 50/50 joint venture, P&O Nedlloyd. P&O Nedlloyd expanded further in February 1998 with the purchase of Blue Star Line's container business and Tasman Express Line in February 1999. The company also acquired the container business of Farrell Lines in June 2000 and Harrison Line in September 2000.

In 2004, Royal Nedlloyd bought the remaining shares from P&O and the company was listed as Royal P&O Nedlloyd on the Dutch stock exchange. 

On May 2005, Maersk launched its plans to buy P&O Nedlloyd for €2.3 billion. The acquisition was completed on August 13, 2005. Royal P&O Nedlloyd shares ended trading on September 5 of the same year. On February of 2006, the new merged companies took on the name Maersk Line.

Atlantic Container Line (ACL)

Atlantic Container Line (ACL) was formed in May 1965 by four European shipping companies (Holland America Line, Swedish America Line, Transatlantic Steamship and Wallenius) to containerise the Europe-North America East Coast trade. They were joined by Compagnie Generale Transatlantique and Cunard in 1967 with each partner holding a 20% share each except SAL and Transatlantic which owned 10%.

ACL was a pioneer in the use of container/roro vessels starting with the ATLANTIC SPAN in 1967, the first of ACL's four G-1 (first generation) conro vessels with 700 teu container capacity and space for rolling cargo. They were followed by the six 845 teu G-2 class conro vessels (built in 1969-70) and the five 2,100 teu G-3 conro vessels (built in 1984-85). The G-3 ships were lengthened in 1986-7, from 250m to 292m, raising their capacity to 2,900 teu, allowing ACL to enter into a slot cooperation with Hapag-Lloyd on the transatlantic trade.

In January 1975, SAL acquired Holland America Line's cargo transportation business including the 10% share in ACL, and the business was renamed Incotrans (Intercontinental Transport). In 1983, ACL's ownership changed again with Wallenius, Cunard and CGM (the new name of CGT) each at 22.22%, Transatlantic had 11.11% and SAL/Incotrans split their share into 17.22% and 5%. In 1984 SAL/Incotrans was acquired by Transatlantic, which in turn was bought by Swedish transportation company Bilspedition.

In 1989, Bilspedition/Transatlantic, which already held 33.33% of ACL, acquired the shares of Wallenius, CGM and Cunard to become the sole owner of ACL. Bilspedition also took over Wallenius' and Cunard's stakes in Gulf Container Line (GCL) and integrated it into the ACL network. 

A public offering for ACL by Bilspedition was successfully made in 1994 and the company was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

ACL's ships remained under the ownership of its previous partners but by 1996, it acquired full ownership of its fleet with the final purchase of ATLANTIC CARTIER from CGM.

Bilspedition's stake in ACL, which was reduced from 100% to around 15% after the public listing, was sold in early 1997 to US-based Holt Cargo Systems, a company involved in terminal operations and which controls Navieras de Puerto Rico. After raising its stake in ACL to about 30% in 1998, Holt made an unsuccesful bid to take control of ACL. 

In August 2000, the Grimaldi Group acquired Holt's shares in ACL and raised its holdings to 44% to become ACL's largest shareholder. In September 2000, CMA CGM has bought 10.04% of ACL shares. In 2001, Grimaldi launched a mandatory bid for ACL after its sharehodings exceeded 45% and increased its stake to 81%, and then to 91% after acquiring CMA CGM's stake in October 2001. ACL became a wholly owned unit of the Grimaldi Group in 2007.

ACL commenced studies on a new generation G-4 conro vessels in 2008 and finally placed an order in August 2012 with Hudong-Zhonghua for five units for delivery in 2015 to replace the aging G-3 units. The G-4s can carry 3,800 teu with 28,900 sqm of roro space, including a car capacity of 1,307 vehicles.

Associated Container Transportation (ACT)

Associated Container Transport (ACT) was created on the 12 January 1966 by five British shipping companies - Ben Line, Blue Star Line, Cunard (Port Line), Ellerman Lines and the Harrison Line. It was formed as a rival to OCL, with ACT member lines to participate in newly containerised trades where they had existing conventional liner services.

In August 1967, Blue Star, Ellerman and Port Line joined together to form the Associated Container Transport (Australia) or ACT(A) to containerise the Europe-Australia trade with Blue Star and Port Line taking a 42.5% share while Ellerman had 15%. Three containerships of 1,130 teu were ordered (ACT 1/2/3) with the third ship ACT 3 subsequently acquired by Australian National Line (ANL) and renamed AUSTRALIAN ENDEAVOUR.

The Europe-Australia container service was launched in partnership with OCL in March 1969, with ACT/ANL providing 3 ships and OCL 5 ships.  

Another ACT subsidiary, Pacific America Container Express (PACE) Line was formed in March 1971 for the ANZ-East Coast North America trade. ACT/ANL operated four 1,270 teu ships on this service (ACT 3/4/5 and AUSTRALIAN EXPLORER). 

Over the years, some of the ACT partners left and their shares were swallowed by Cunard, leaving Blue Star and Cunard as the remaining partners (with Cunard owning 57.5% of the pool). ACT was split up in 1991, with P&OCL (the successor of OCL) taking over the Europe-ANZ business and Blue Star keeping the US-ANZ business. Cunard, which had acquired Ellerman Lines in 1988, decided to abandon cargo shipping to focus on cruise ships and sold off its cargo vessel fleet in 1989-1991.

Overseas Containers Ltd (OCL)

Overseas Containers Limited (OCL) was a joint venture of four British shipping companies that were involved in conventional liner trades, comprising of P&O, Ocean Steamship, British & Commonwealth and Furness Withy.

It was incorporated on 27 August 1965, with each partners' shareholding to vary based on their holdings in the trades that were containerised and transferred to OCL. Unlike its rival ACT, each partner automatically acquired an interest in every trade that OCL entered.

Evolution of OCL Shareholdings (1965-1986)                      P&O          Ocean        B&C       Furness Withy
1) At start of Europe-Australia service (Mar 1969)             37.0%        19.5%        15.2%        28.3%
2) After entry in FE-Europe & Aust-Japan (Sep 1972)         30.0%        49.0%        7.6%          13.4%
3) After entry in SAECS & ANZL (Nov 1977)                       30.7%        33.9%        19.4%        16.0%
4) After entry in Eur-Jeddah (Nov 1979)                            30.9%        34.1%        19.2%        15.8%
5) After withdrawal of Furness Withy (Nov 1980)               36.7%        40.5%        22.8%
6) After entry in Eur-Gulf & East Africa (Nov 1981)            47.4%        32.8%        19.8%
7) After P&O buy out of remaining partners (May 1986)    100.0%