Safmarine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Safmarine (Safmarine Container Lines N.V.) is an international shipping business offering container and break-bulk shipping services worldwide. Formed in 1946 by American ship owners and South African industrialists, it is now widely known as a north/south trade and Africa specialist. It is represented in more than 130 countries throughout the world, with more than 1200 dedicated Safmariners providing personalised shipping solutions. Safmarine has been headquartered and registered in Antwerp, Belgium since 1996 when it completed its acquisition of The Belgian Line CMBT. In 1999, Safmarine was bought by A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and they kept it as its own brand rather than integrating it wholly into Maersk Sealand. In 2002, Safmarine acquired Torm Lines.
Safmarine's pre-buyout containers had the SAMU prefix, and since Maersk bought them new containers have appeared with the parent company marking, MSKU. Maersk kept the original Safmarine graphics but integrated them into a redesigned container. The old dry van pre-Maersk containers were blue with the Safmarine flag on each side and Safmarine in cursive writing on the back door. The older refrigerated containers had the big cursive Safmarine writing on the sides. The newer dry van and reefer containers with the Maersk influence are darker blue (the reefers are white of course) with gigantic Safmarine cursive on the side as well as the flag. Where the 7 point star appears on each door on a Maersk container, the Safmarine flag appears for their containers. The Maersk container redesign for Safmarine makes their containers much more easily identifiable and, to many, more visually appealing. In ancient history before the "flag logo" pre-buyout containers, Safmarine did have 2 different container appearances that simply said Safmarine in different non-cursive fonts but did not feature the flag on the sides.
