Associated Container Transportation

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Associated Container Transportation (ACT) was a container shipping company founded by several British liner shipping companies, which existed from 1966 to 1991.

history

The joint venture was founded in 1966 by the liner shipping companies Ellerman Lines , Blue Star Line , Ben Line , Harrison Line and Port Line in order to gain a foothold in the container business, which was new at the time, without having to deal with the large investments involved alone. The background to this development was the rapidly growing long-haul container traffic worldwide, with which competitors, such as the container pioneers Sea-Land Corporation or the newly founded consortia Overseas Containers Limited and Atlantic Container Lines, purchased large amounts of cargo from conventional general cargo line traffic.

After individual containerized cargoes had already been shipped, the ACT received its first newbuildings, starting in 1968 with the ACT 1 . The ship names were all ACT ... with a consecutive number. The Europe-Australia liner services were started in October 1969 as part of the AECS (Australia Europe Container Service) in cooperation with the consortium Overseas Containers Limited and shipping companies such as Australia National Line from Melbourne and were considered a pacemaker in the region at the time, as the ships from In the beginning, they were designed for the transport of a large number of reefer containers .

The Associated Container Transportation left the AECS in mid-1972 together with the Australia National Line to set up its own service. From May 1977, shortly after the start of delivery of the Australian Venture series, both shipping companies re-entered the AECS service between Australia / New Zealand and Europe, which from 1978/79 also included New Zealand and then as ANZECS (Australia New Zealand Europe Container Service).

In 1991 the ACT was disbanded and all ships were sold or transferred. The ACT 1 , ACT 2 and ACT 7 were sold to the OCL container division of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and renamed Discovery Bay , Moreton Bay and Palliser Bay . The remaining ACT 3 , ACT 4 , ACT 5 , ACT 6 and ACT 10 went to the Blue Star Line and a partner shipping company. In 1998, when the Blue Star Line was sold to P & O, these ships came under its flag, but retained their Blue Star name and appearance. When the America Star, the last of these ships, was sold for demolition in 2003 , it ended the tradition of the Associated Container Transportation shipping company and that of the Blue Star Line.

swell

  1. ^ Clegg, W. Paul (Ed.): British Shipping . Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton 1988, ISBN 0-7110-1787-5 .