Sanko Line
| Sanko Line | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Kabushiki kaisha ( joint stock company ) |
| founding | August 31, 1934 |
| Seat | 2-3 Uchisaiwaichō 2-chōme, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo , 100-0011, (Hibiya Kokusai Bldg. 2F) |
| management | Takeshi Matsui 松井 毅 (Chairman of the Board) |
| Number of employees | 169 (2011) |
| sales | 3.805 million yen (2010) |
| Branch | Shipping company |
| Website | www.sankoline.co.jp |
Sankō Kisen KK ( Japanese 三光 汽船 株式会社 , Sankō Kisen Kabushiki kaisha , English The Sanko Steamship Co., Ltd. , internationally known as Sanko Line ) is a Japanese shipping company founded in 1934 .
history
The company was founded on August 31, 1934 as Sankō Kaiun Kaisha . The shipping company initially dealt with freight services from Japan to Korea and China. Even in the years before the Second World War, the company was one of the largest shipping companies in its trading area. In the war years, the shipping company lost almost its entire fleet and expanded its liner services again in the post-war years.
Sanko was the only major Japanese shipping company to remain independent from the mid-1960s, despite the numerous state-sponsored mergers of Japanese shipping companies. By the early 1970s, the company had developed into one of the largest shipping companies in the country, with a fleet of 316 ships and a total load capacity of 25,200,000 tons.
After the Sanko Line got into such serious financial difficulties in 1982, not least due to the construction of a large number of VLCC tankers (23 of the total of 140 ships), that the banks involved threatened to end the financing, the shipping company ordered with help foreign banks another 125 bulk carriers with a load capacity of 30,000 to 40,000 tons each. In March 1984 the Sanko Line was finally insolvent with a debt level of 3.3 billion pounds sterling . If the shipping company collapsed, a far-reaching domino effect had to be expected among the Sanko trading partners (especially the mostly Japanese shipyards). In 1985, the shipping company was saved by a joint rescue package from the state and the business partners involved. From January 1986 to 1989 the company was extensively streamlined. Since then, Sanko Line has mainly concentrated on its core areas of bulk transport ( bulk carriers ).
Today the shipping company operates oil and gas tankers, bulk carriers, break bulk carriers, and forest products transporters. At the beginning of 2011, 192 ships with a load capacity of around 13 million tons were managed by Sanko Line. The trade area includes worldwide services from all major Japanese ports. The company is also active in the offshore sector.
In March 2012, Sanko informed business partners about payment difficulties with reduced payments (e.g. to companies with which Sanko had chartered ships).
On July 2, 2012, Sanko filed for reorganization in a Tokyo district court, and on July 5, the shipping company filed for bankruptcy in the United States under Chapter 15 of the United States Bankruptcy Code .
A German ship fund, owner of three crude oil tankers, had to file for bankruptcy in September 2012 as a result of Sanko's difficulties.
See also
literature
- Pein, Joachim W .: Giants of the oceans: The history of the supertanker . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-7822-0670-3 .
Web links
- Sanko Line website (Japanese, English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sanko Line website ( Memento of the original from March 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ http://www.sankoline.co.jp/FinancialReport/20100930Statements.pdf ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Entry on the Sanko homepage ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Entry on Sanko's homepage ( Memento of the original from July 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ http://www.manager-magazin.de September 17, 2012: Japanese shipping company triggers fund bankruptcies
