Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM) (Royal Packet Navigation Company) was a Dutch shipping company (1888-1966) in the Dutch East Indies.
It maintained the connections between the islands of Indonesia,[1] and supported the unification of the Dutch colony economy as the Netherlands expanded its territory across the Indonesian archipelago. The company brought inter-island commerce through the capital, Batavia (now Jakarta) rather than to Singapore, which shifted economic activity to Java.[2]
In the 1920s its working routes included regular weekly services between Singapore and Java, and Singapore and Hong Kong.
The company later merged into Nedlloyd, P&O Nedlloyd and finally Maersk.