Safmarine
| Safmarine Container Lines NV
|
|
|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1946 |
| Seat | Antwerp |
| management | Ivan Heesom-Green |
| Number of employees | 1200 (in 130 countries) |
| Branch | Container shipping company |
| Website | www.safmarine.com |
Safmarine ( Safmarine Container Lines NV ) is an international container shipping company with headquarters in Antwerp , Belgium .
Foundation (1946)
Safmarine was founded in 1946 by US ship owners and South African industrialists and the general cargo ships used had both dry holds and refrigerated holds.
Conversion to containers and porthole refrigerated containers (1977)
In 1977 container traffic between Europe and South Africa (SAECS South-Africa-Europe-Container-Service) began with seven ships. They had a load capacity of 50,000 tdw, connections for around 900 refrigerated containers (PR-TEU) and ran 23 knots. In addition to Safmarine with the largest refrigerated container ships at the time, SA Helderberg , SA Sederberg , SA Winterberg and SA Waterberg , Deutsche Afrika-Linien was also involved in this service with the Transvaal . All these ships were set up for porthole containers , since the reliability of the integral containers did not yet meet the requirements of this service.
Takeover by AP Møller-Mærsk (1999)
In 1996 Safmarine took over the Belgian company CMBT . Since then, the company's headquarters have also been in Antwerp. In 1999 Safmarine was taken over by the Danish group of companies AP Møller-Mærsk ( Mærsk Line ). Today the shipping company is a specialist in North-South trade and Africa . Safmarine employs over 1200 people in over 130 countries worldwide.