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.