Salén shipping company

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The Salén shipping company (Swedish: Salén Rederierna AB , Salén Rederiet , also Stockholmsrederiet Salén ) existed from 1915 to 1984. At times it was one of the largest Swedish shipping companies. From 1942 to 1977 she also operated several shipyards .

history

The beginning

The company was founded by Sven Salén. In 1915, after graduating from high school and studying economics in Gothenburg, he raised money to buy the first small motor ship, the Robur . He also bought two small coastal sailors that he used in the coastal voyage.

Reefer ships

In 1922 Salén teamed up with the Norwegian shipowner Carl Mathiesen to begin importing bananas to Sweden. Saléns then began to set up the refrigerated shipping company A / B Banantransport (Salén) in Stockholm.

Windward Island tanker 1959–1960

Used ships were initially used, but in 1931 he took over the first new fruit ship build with RH Sanders, built in Fredriksstad, Norway .

Tankers

In the post-war years, Salén entered the tanker shipping business. By the end of this decade of expansion, Salén had already become one of Sweden's larger shipping companies. The rapid growth of the tanker fleets, particularly in the 1960s and early 1970s, made Salén Sweden's largest shipping company in the years that followed.

Dry cargo ships

Salén’s first mainstay, the traditional global general cargo transport, had largely ceased in the years after the Second World War. It was not until 1967 that Salén acquired the Rex shipping group, which mainly dealt (mainly with older tonnage) with ore and bulk transport. Part of the Rex group were Göteborgsrederierna Transoil, Red AB Jamaica and the shipping company Bratt / Götha, which were also integrated into the Salén group. A few years later, in 1970, Salén bought the traditional shipping company Poseidon, better known as Brodinrederierna.

Passenger ships

After the war, Salén in the United States acquired the C3 ship Archer , which had been converted into a MAC ship , whose flight deck was removed. Converted into an emigrant ship, the ship was named Anna Salén . The passenger ship was used on the route between Europe and Australia and was considered to be one of the most important Swedish ships of its kind due to its high capacity of around 1500 passengers.

Shipbuilding and repair

In 1942 Salén acquired Ekensbergs Werft from Stockholms Rederi AB Svea and enlarged and modernized it considerably in the following years. In 1970 she also bought the more favorably located Finnboda shipyard in Nacka from the Svea, ceased operations in Ekensbergs and expanded the Finnboda shipyard so that ships of up to 35,000 tons could be built there. In 1971 the Götaverken in Gothenburg was bought . As a result of the 1973 oil crisis , Salén was forced to integrate Finnboda into the Götaverken in 1974. Three years later, in 1977, Götaverken was taken over by the state-owned Svenska Varv , as was the subsidiary Götaverken Finnboda AB.

The End

After the tanker crisis of the 1970s had put the company in serious financial difficulties, Salén had to file for bankruptcy at the Stockholm District Court on December 19, 1984 due to the subsequent generally poor shipping economy of the early 1980s. The company's assets, especially the mostly modern ships and the extensive shipyard ( Öresundsvarvet ) and oil rig investments , were sold to satisfy the creditors.

The parts of the company registered abroad were only affected to a lesser extent by the bankruptcy. For example, the Cool Carriers shipping company emerged from the Saléns reefer division, which is still an important shipping company today.

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