Komrowski
| Komrowski Befrachtungskontor KG (GmbH & Co.) | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | 1923 (shipping company, 1912 trading house) |
| Seat | Hamburg , Germany |
| Branch | Shipping company |
| Website | www.komrowski.net |
The Komrowski Befrachtungskontor KG (GmbH & Co.) is a German shipping company -, shipping and trading company based in Hamburg . Starting with a trading company and a shipping company founded for this company in 1923 under Ernst Komrowski, the Komrowski Group is now an international company and is managed by the third generation of the Komrowski family.
Komrowski is active in the area of chartering, charter and operation, as well as in the construction, purchase and sale of merchant ships and the associated technical services and crew, as well as in the financing business with the subsidiary Montan Capital.
By taking over the fleet of the Blue Star shipping company from the Danish company Maersk , Komrowski increased the number of his ships to over 50 in 2009. Next to a fleet of multi-purpose vessels and container ships and feeder vessels and bulk carriers which are chartered in part.
founding
The shipping company was founded in 1923 as Ernst Komrowski Reederei, Hamburg, by Ernst Komrowski, so that the trading company Dobbertin & Co., in which he was involved, became more independent of the freight market for ships. The trading house was founded by Carl Dobbertin and Komrowski in Hamburg in 1912 and primarily marketed the iron and steel products from the rolling mill of the Stumm brothers. This way of setting up a shipping company was common at that time, many German shipping companies emerged as offshoots of trading houses.
The first ship in 1923
The small ship Montan with 244 tdw (450 tdw according to the shipping company information), delivered in 1923 by the Frerichswerft , was the first ship of the young shipping company. Today it would be called a Rhine sea ship . For the trading company, iron and steel products were transported from the Ruhr area to Hamburg and Rotterdam on the outward journey . On the return journey mainly agricultural products were transported. Due to the rapidly growing shops and loads, the Montan was soon sold again. In 1924, two more ships, the Mangan and Methan , were taken over by the J. Frerichs shipyard, significantly larger with 700 tdw. These ships were owned by the shipping company for 13 and 33 years respectively.
The Montanhof 1925
In 1925, the trading house involved the own as Montanhof designated office building where the Komrowski Befrachtungskontor KG still has its headquarters today. In 1938 the separation from partner Carl Dobbertin takes place.
In order to prevent the Hamburg-America Line (HAPAG) from being affiliated with the Reichswerke Hermann Göring , which was founded on July 15, 1937, Hamburg shipowners took part in a repurchase campaign for the state-owned shares. As a result, Ernst Komrowski also bought a share package and moved to the Hapag Supervisory Board. After the war, he was also involved in their reconstruction through this function. Due to internal power struggles, he sold his shares in 1954.
Expansion of the fleet (1927–1945)
In 1927, the newly built Vulkan from the Union foundry in Königsberg added 1,430 tdw to the small fleet of three ships. The Egeran (ex. Dortmund , built 1900 near the Bremer Vulkan ) with 1090 tdw was bought like the Heluan (built 1896, 800 tdw) in 1931. Both were powered by a triple expansion machine.
The Montan (II), Adrian and Heluan (II) were from 1934 to 1936 by Friedr. Krupp AG Germania shipyard in Kiel delivered. They had load capacities of 1,700 - 2,450 tdw and the Heluan was a giant on the Rhine with 2450 tdw . In 1938 the Balkan (model 1924, ex. Clanwood , 3,450 dwt ) and in 1939 the Eberstein (model 1905, ex. California , 7,200 dwt) were taken over. Two more ships, the Egeran (II) and the 1907 built Mangan (II), enlarged the fleet in 1940, which was then reduced to two ships after the war due to the war and ship deliveries to the victorious powers.
New beginning after the Second World War
Only the small methane with 700 tdw and the wreck of the Mangan (II), which was hit by a bomb in the port of Hamburg at the end of the Second World War , remained with the shipping company. But at that time a wreck was also interesting, as larger ships were not allowed to be built. However, wrecks were allowed to be repaired, even if, as with the Mangan , there was an 80% renewal. Due to the changed conditions of the export contracts, the shipping company found it difficult to employ the ships with their own cargo. Therefore, the ships were chartered out to HAPAG, whose fleet largely had to be delivered to the victorious powers.
The 6,000 tdw freighter Montan (III) (ex. Granny Suzanne , built in 1929) was on a time charter with HAPAG for four years. The Vulkan (II) with 7,100 tdw, which was delivered by Deutsche Werft in 1952 , had elegant facilities for twelve passengers. She was also chartered by HAPAG and also used as a mail ship in the North Atlantic liner service .
The Heluan (also German shipyard) with a low bridge house and folding masts with loading gear was for a long time the largest ship on the Rhine with 2,400 tdw.
Komrowski Befrachtungskontor GmbH (1953–1978)
Komrowski Befrachtungskontor KG was founded in 1953 because in the future the general freighting business was to be operated in addition to its own tonnage and cargo. Since the shipowner's only son had died in the war, Dr. R. Phillippi was appointed managing director, who left in 1982. Grandson Ernst Peter Komrowski had been with the company since 1969 and took over management of the company eight years later. In 1978 the company founder died.
After 1953, larger, universal and sophisticated general cargo carriers with cargo refrigeration rooms, sweet oil tanks and extensive cargo gear were built for liner trips and chartered to liner shipping companies. Examples of this are the Vulkan (II) with 7,100 dwt, the Adrian (10,400 dwt) and the Ossian (15,400 dwt). This also included the Merian and Mangan with 15,500 tdw, which were delivered in 1968/69 by Lübeck-based Flender-Werke AG.
With the Vulkan (III), the first and for a long time the only bulk carrier was built in 1962 , with 30,700 tdw a “Bulker” without its own loading gear, which ran 15 knots with a 10,500 HP two-stroke diesel engine .
Flagging out and company formation
Owing to the frequent revaluations of the DM, operating ships with German seafarers had become expensive, and international competition was becoming more and more difficult for German shipowners. This particularly affected the older, non-automated overseas ships with three guards and a crew of 35 to 40 men .
The flagging out and employment of foreign seafarers have saved costs. Therefore, two subsidiaries were founded in Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles in 1972 and Adrian and Montan received the Dutch flag. The Balkans , Ossian and Vulkan were flagged out and renamed to Liberia .
After Komrowski had set up the first overseas branch in Jakarta in 1954, Antwerp Steel Export NV was founded in 1956, a steel trading company in Antwerp , which today (as ASE Metals NV, ASE Europe NV and ASE Chemicals NV) in the international trading business The Komrowski Group is still active with a special focus on steel and steel products, but also glass, building materials and other products.
1957 followed the founding of the insurance agency Assekuranz-Kontor Montan GmbH, which as an insurer has also been based in Montanhof since then. Komrowski Engineering GmbH was also founded in Hamburg in 1965 and Komrowski ( Hong Kong ) Ltd. and New World Shipping Company NV in Curaçao, which is still an independent company in the Netherlands Antilles.
In 1973 AMAZSA (Agencia Maritima Artiach Zuazaga) was founded in Bilbao with two partners , a shipping company active in various fields.
Container ships (1979 to today)
1979 there were two container multipurpose vessels , which in the art as semi container ships were called, with its own envelope dishes under construction. The Christina Isabel and Mount Sabana (18,300 tdw) were built by Korea Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. in 1978/79. delivered in Busan . The Montan (IV) came from VEB Warnowwerft in Warnemünde in 1984 and had a load capacity of 17,330 tdw. The container ship , delivered in 1980 as Christian Wesch by Howaldtswerke / Deutsche Werft AG , Kiel, was acquired by the shipping company Wesch in a foreclosure auction in 1986 and incorporated into the fleet as Balkan (III). The sister ship Sandra Wesch was auctioned in the same way and renamed Adrian (III).
From the Hamburg Süd have been Columbus Olinda and Columbus Ohio ( Neptun Werft , Rostock ) bought that were chartered under this name until 1995, Hamburg Süd. The Columbus Olinda was named Heluan after the charter expired , and the Columbus Ohio was sold in 1995.
The Dorian (1,525 TEU) was delivered in 1994 by Stocznia Szczecinska SA in Stettin (formerly Stettiner Vulcan ) , for which the Komrowski Befrachtungskontor acted as the correspondent owner. In 1996 and 1997, the somewhat larger Vulkan (IV) and Adrian (IV) came from this shipyard , offering parking spaces for 1725 TEU.
In the two decades, further companies of the Komrowski Group were founded at the Hamburg headquarters. In 1981, Komrowski Maritim GmbH was established there, which among other things was involved in the conclusion of contracts and the management of new ships, marine and offshore technology, and in the field of equipment and technical support. The shipping company's own issuing house was established in 2003 with Montan Capital GmbH, and in 2005 Komrowski Bulk Shipping followed for bulk freight freighting.
On December 14, 2011, ER Schiffahrt announced that it wanted to merge with its competitor Komrowski to form a new shipping company called Blue Star Holding . This would create the largest German shipping group with more than 160 ships. The majority of the capital in this new shipping company would be held by ER Capital, the holding company of the ER Schiffahrt Group.
Ships from China
Small shipyards in China ordered ten 500 TEU container feeder ships, some of which were resold to other German shipping companies. In addition, there are two 700 TEU ships (built in 2003, 2005) and two 1,300 TEU ships (built in 2007) in the fleet. Four more 1,100 TEU ships were or will be delivered in 2009/2010.
In addition, three Panamax bulk carriers (74,000 tdw) such as B. the Merian from Hudong Shipyard, the fourth will be delivered in 2010.
Blue star
The Blue Star Line (BSL) was a British shipping company with headquarters in London and operated a very successful liner service to South America. The shipping services were expanded over time to Australia, North America and East Asia. The company was one of the pioneers in the shipping of frozen products with refrigerated ships and later also one of the pioneers in shipping frozen cargo in porthole containers .
In 1998 the English Vestey family sold the Blue Star Line container service to P & O. It was re-established in Hamburg in 2002 as the shipping company Blue Star GmbH. In 2005, P & O Nedlloyd was merged with the AP Moeller Maersk Group, which resulted in the Blue Star GmbH shipping company becoming a 100% subsidiary of the Maersk Group. Due to the focus on the core business carried out in 2008, Maersk decided to sell Blue Star. In 2009 Komrowski Befrachtungskontor KG took over the Blue Star shipping company and managed the 34 container ships in the Blue Star fleet. This increases the Komrowski fleet to a total of 52 ships, mainly container ships, with a total capacity of around 190,000 TEU spaces.
literature
- GU Detlefsen: 75 years Komrowski Reederei Hamburg , 1998, publisher Gert Uwe Detlefsen.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Giant shipping group is created in Hamburg ( Memento from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , NDR, December 14, 2011.
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 32 '56.4 " N , 9 ° 59' 58.9" E