| Industry | Shipping |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1975 |
| Founder(s) | Vasileios Konstantakopoulos |
| Headquarters | Athens, Greece |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Website | www.costamare.com |
Costamare Inc. is a Greek shipping company, specialising in the ownership of container ships.[1] It owns a fleet of 61 vessels, with total capacity of 337,000 Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), which are chartered out to other shipping operators.[1]
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The company was founded in 1975 as Costamare Shipping Company S.A. to manage the Konstantakopoulos family's fleet of ships.[2] In 2000 it controlled 21 ships, in 2008, 53, dropping back to 41 in 2010.[3] In 2010 it planned a US$245 million IPO to fund an expansion of its fleet.[4]
In October 2011 the MV Rena, which was being operated under charter by MSC, ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef near Tauranga, New Zealand. The resulting oil spill was labelled New Zealand's "worst ever environmental disaster".[5]. The Costamare website claims that "The Costamare fleet of containerships has an excellent reputation for smooth, interruption-free service, approaching utilisation levels of 100%. While providing a high level of service to its customers, Costamare Inc. also manages its business with the utmost concern for the safety of people and the environment."