Polsteam

Polsteam
Public
Industry Shipping
Founded January 2, 1951 (1951-01-02)
Headquarters Szczecin, Poland
Area served
 Global
Key people
 Paweł Szynkaruk (CEO)
Website polsteam.com.pl

Polsteam, formerly known as the Polish Steamship Company (in Polish: Polska Żegluga Morska, PŻM), is a cargo ship operator based in Szczecin, Poland. Polsteam is a state-owned enterprise (SOE) with around 3,000 employees.

Company history

Polsteam was founded in 1951, nationalizing the assets of two Polish pre-WWII marine freight companies (Gdynia-Ameryka Linie Żeglugowe SA and Żegluga Polska), making it the oldest Polish cargo ship operator in existence.[1]

SS Sołdek

Initially, Polsteam's fleet comprised 11 ships of joint carrying capacity of approx 27,000 DWT.[2] Among those ships there were: four of the so-called. French ships, which were steamers built in 1926 in French shipyard of Chantiers Navals Francais in Blainville: SS Wieluń, SS Kraków, SS Toruń, SS Poznań, the oldest of the acquired ships was SS Narocz (2,520 DWT) built in 1915 in Great Britain, SS Narew (310 DWT) a small coaster built in 1944 in Germany and SS Elbląg (1,699 DWT) built in 1944. Four ships of B-30 series, constructed in 1949 in Gdańsk Shipyard: SS Sołdek (first ship in the post-WWII history of the Polish shipbuilding industry), SS Jedność Robotnicza, SS Pstrowski and SS Brygada Makowskiego (built in 1950).[2]

In early years of Polsteam's existence, the ship owner's vessels navigated on short and midrange sea routes (i.e. the Baltic Sea, North Sea and Mediterranean Sea). During the course of the first five years, they carried coal, wood, and iron ore. 80-90% of shipping involved tramping services and although the ship operator had three lines since 1951 namely: Szczecin - Stockholm, Szczecin - London - Rouen and Szczecin - Hamburg - Rotterdam - Antwerp.[2]

Fleet

It operates a fleet of 75 vessels (total: 2,500,000 DWT), mostly dry bulk carriers. Polsteam's particular specialty is the transportation of liquid sulfur.[3]

Polsteam also operates a passenger ferry service between Świnoujście and the Swedish ports of Ystad and Trelleborg via its subsidiary Unity Line.

The PZM line operates a bi-weekly service from the IJmuiden docks in Amsterdam to the North American port of Duluth, Minnesota.[4] Five 35,600-tonners were built in Japan by Mitsui over the years 1999-2000, and eight 30,000-tonners were built in China by Nanting Mingde over the years 2010-12. The older "Ziemia" class vessels were withdrawn from the Great Lakes trade before 2013.[4] The dimensions are limited by the locks of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the 40ft draught of the Great Lakes Waterway. The Great Lakes Fleet comprise:[4]

Polsteam Ships

See also

References

  1. ↑ Firma z długą historią. „Bryza. Biuletyn informacyjny PŻM”, p. 1, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 60 years of Polsteam - difficult beginnings. „Obserwator morski”, p. 17, 2010. ISSN 1899-5373
  3. ↑ http://www.polsteam.com.pl/flota Polsteam Fleet
  4. 1 2 3 cruisepeople.co.uk: "PZM Polish Steamship Company"

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Polsteam.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, October 03, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.