Zim Integrated Shipping Services
| Zim Integrated Shipping Services
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Limited |
| founding | 1945 |
| Seat |
Haifa , Israel
|
| management | Rafi Danieli (CEO) |
| Number of employees | 4200 |
| sales | 3.4 billion US dollars |
| Branch | Shipping company |
| Website | http://www.zim.com/ |
| As of November 4, 2015 | |
The Israeli shipping company Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. , ZIM for short , ( Hebrew צים) based in Haifa is one of the 20 largest container shipping companies in the world. It belongs to the Israel Corporation , which in turn is majority owned by the Ofer Brothers Group .
history
founding
ZIM was founded in 1945 by the immigration organization Jewish Agency , the trade union umbrella organization Histadrut and the Palestine Maritime League as the ZIM Israel Navigation Company. In 1947 the first passenger ship, the Kedmah, was acquired . During the construction years of the Israeli state, the ZIM fleet consisted mainly of converted immigrant ships.
1953-1968
From 1953 ZIM began to build a larger fleet. In the following 15 years, ZIM acquired 36 passenger ships , cargo ships , bulk carriers and tankers , with which numerous passenger and cargo services were opened. Due to the triumphant advance of passenger aviation, however, ZIM's scheduled passenger services also accumulated losses so high in the late 1960s that they were discontinued. The last passenger ship, the Moledet , built in 1961 , was sold on September 28, 1970.
Conversion and containerization
In 1969, the Israeli government transferred half of ZIM's shares to the Israel Corporation , which converted the company into an internationally oriented cargo shipping company. For the company's 25th anniversary in 1970, ZIM operated 77 of its own and 70 chartered ships on 19 liner services, which carried 4.3 million tons of cargo annually. This year, the shipping company began to align itself with the technological change in global cargo traffic by ordering six new container ships , new containers and shore equipment. Two years later, the company opened the ZIM Container Service (ZCS), which connects Israel to ports in the Far East, Asia, America and Europe in a 100-day service. In addition, crude oil tankers were employed to transport oil from Iran to Israel.
expansion
From 1990 to 1997 Zim expanded its fleet with 15 new container ships, among other things, to enable weekly departures on its liner services. From 1997, in view of the weak economic situation in shipping, the focus was on optimizing and expanding ongoing operations. A further 13 new 5000 TEU container ships were added to the fleet in these years.
In 1999 the Ofer Brothers Group took over the majority stake in the Israel Corporation. In 2004 the Israel Corporation took over the remaining shares in ZIM from the Israeli government. Then 13 new container ships were integrated into the fleet and more were ordered. The company now offers other transport services and logistics solutions beyond shipping.
Name, flag and chimney
The name "ZIM" was proposed by Israel's first transport minister, David Remez, and is based on an Old Testament passage in which the Hebrew word "Zim" stands for "large ships". The name was chosen because it coincided with the company's goal of building a large merchant fleet.
The shipping company's office flag is based on a draft of the future national flag of the State of Israel created by Theodor Herzl in 1896 . Herzl's design depicted seven gold stars in the middle on a white background. The two horizontal blue stripes of the later national flag were added to the design later. The painting on the chimney of the ZIM ships also takes up the color of the office flag.
Web links
- Site of the ZIM (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Data and facts on the company website, accessed on November 4, 2015