DFDS
Det Forenede Dampskibs - Selskab A / S (Danish, The United Steamship Company) is a Danish shipping company with headquarters in Copenhagen, was established in 1866. Today the DFDS maintains focus on ferry services in North and Baltic Sea and especially from continental Europe and Scandinavia to Britain. Through the acquisition of Norfolkline in 2010 the route network could now be extended. DFDS is one of the oldest and most successful Danish companies. It includes the business areas DFDS Seaways and DFDS Logistics for sea transport for road and rail transport and container transport.
Past and present
19th century
In 1866, several local Danish shipowners joined under the leadership of Carl Frederik Tietgen to DFDS - Det Forenede Dampskibs - Selskab A / S ( Eng.: The United Steamship Company ) together. The house flag of the new cruise line, a white Maltese cross on blue ground. The young shipping company operating coastal services to Norway, Sweden and the UK up to the Faroe Islands and Iceland. On these lines exclusively smaller cargo and passenger ships were used.
In 1884 the line services have been introduced to the Mediterranean ports and 1894 started the overseas freight services to North America. Initially, New Orleans was under way, and later New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. 1907, the freight services were expanded to South America with stops in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires or Montevideo. 1898 Thingvalla line was bought by DFDS and opened the passenger transatlantic service. On June 28, 1904, the steamship Norge ran on Helen's Reef at Rockall and sank within 20 minutes, 625 people drowned, the greatest tragedy of the northern North Atlantic emigrants at all. This service was renamed soon as Scandinavia Amerikalinje A / S ( SAL) with New York as a general arrival ports, until 1936, this service was maintained. 1935 burned the liner United States, and since the rest of the SAL fleet required new buildings, the DFDS but on their core business - the intra-European services - wanted to focus, the transatlantic passenger service was discontinued in 1936.
20th century
From the 1930s, the coastal service of DFDS got more and more the character of ferry services, which should also be the focus of the business in the following period. 1937 went with Crown Prince Olav even a kind of prototype of today's ferries in service. During the Second World War, the shipping company lost a large part of the fleet and launched new programs when the war ended, like all cruise lines in time.
For the overseas service of DFDS time expired meanwhile, aircraft and containers called for greater investment. Since the core business were the ferry services, freight services were discontinued in North and South America and in the Mediterranean at the beginning of the 1980s.
On the ferry routes, the company expanded rapidly, however, the vessels used here learned practically an annual tonnage increase. 1981 acquired DFDS Tor Line, the Swedish and also changed the brand name for the passenger ferry in Scandinavian Seaways. In the same year took the ferry from Hamburg in the English Harwich by the shipping company Ferries Prince headquartered in Rendsburg, who served this line since 1969. This compound was discontinued in 2002 due to declining passenger and cargo numbers and associated declining utilization of the ship. 1982 DFDS taught under the name Scandinavian World Cruises is a ferry service in North America, on the line New York - Bahamas, a. Specifically, a new building was commissioned for this service, the Scandinavia. Success of this company was not granted and the DFDS was near financial collapse, as in 1985, the whole was rejected.
DFDS took some time to recover from this disaster, but with the beginning of the 1990s, they began to expand again. On the ferry routes new and larger ships were used, especially the new Cruise Ferry standard into account. The brand name for the passenger services has been changed to DFDS Seaways.
The only ferry service from Germany to the United Kingdom led the DFDS Prins line first with " Prins Oberon" from Bremerhaven to Harwich and then with " Prince Hamlet " from Hamburg to Harwich alternate daily through. In recent years, only the ferry " Hamburg " Hamburg drove to Harwich - last attempt was to shorten the route from Harwich to Cuxhaven followed TERMINATION Off. The dock in Hamburg for decades was at the western end of the St. Pauli landing bridges, in early 1991 a new ferry terminal was put into operation at Altona fish market. This facility, built for DFDS, has been now for Cruise Center Altona, the second cruise terminal in Hamburg, rebuilt.
2000-2010
In 2001, the shipping company LISCO was acquired, thus expanding the route network to the Baltic States and Russia. In September 2005, decided DFDS and the Russian state shipping company Sovcomflot signed a cooperation agreement on the common continuation of the introduced since 2002 as SCF St. Petersburg Line ro / ro freight service between Kiel and St Petersburg under the name of SCF Line DFDS.
Kristiansand - - In November 2006, the current ferry Gothenburg Newcastle was set and sold the ship " Princess of Scandinavia" to Moby Lines. At the same time the route Bergen - Haugesund - Stavanger - Newcastle Norwegian Fjord Line taken together with the previously used there ferry "Fjord Norway". The ship sails under the name " Princess of Norway". First was the " Princess of Norway" on the route Bergen - used Newcastle to DFDS decided in 2007, but then to a ship exchange and thus united the sister ships " King of Scandinavia " and " Princess of Norway" on the route IJmuiden - Newcastle, while the " Queen of Scandinavia" connecting Newcastle - Bergen served. On 27 May 2008 the shipping company had announced that the route Bergen - Newcastle is set for economic reasons, September 1, 2008 and sold the "Queen of Scandinavia" or should be chartered. Since the beginning of September 2008, the ship was in the Danish town of Korsør harbor. In the first half of 2009, the former ferry served as a working class neighborhood in the Swedish Forsmark nuclear power plant and was then reprinted in Klaipeda. As of December 2009 the ship was chartered as a hotel ship to the Danish police in Copenhagen. In January 2010 it was announced that the "Queen of Scandinavia" at the Inflot Cruise and Ferry Ltd.. is initially chartered for three years in order for the St. Peter Line the route St. Petersburg - Helsinki to operate.
Acquisition of Norfolkline by DFDS 2010
End of December 2009 had agreed the acquisition of Norfolkline by DFDS DFDS shipping companies and AP Møller Mærsk -; In mid-June, 2010, the European Competition Commission its consent to the transaction. After completion of a rights issue DFDS and Norfolkline were merged on July 12, the new DFDS.
The new DFDS Group is a maritime transportation network with freight and passenger lines on the Baltic Sea, North Sea, Irish Sea and the English Channel as well as in large parts of Europe by the freight transport by road and rail. With the expansion also changed the names of the brands within the DFDS Group. The brand name Norfolkline, DFDS Tor Line, DFDS Lisco, DFDS Lysline or Speed Cargo carried the brand name DFDS Seaways (Ro / Ro & terminals), which was previously used only for passenger ferries, or by DFDS Logistics ( Lo / Lo & Door / Door road transport) replaced.
DFDS Seaways is Reederei customer in northern Germany Cuxhaven. Five to six times a week connects the Danish shipping company the Lower Saxon harbor on the Elbe River in the Ro / Ro Frachtfährliniendienst with the located on Humber Immingham in England and transported about rolling or rolled -made charges such as semi-trailers, all kinds of containers, new vehicles from different manufacturers (OEM ), load and heavy-duty vehicles, construction equipment and MAFI roll trailer, for example, forest products ( paper rolls, lumber ) or steel products are loaded. In Cuxhaven DFDS runs with its cargo ferries to the modern Cuxport deep-water terminal.
In connection with the acquisition of Norfolkline, the decision was to a large renaming. All vessels will continue to have a blue hull and have a name with " Seaways ". Thus, from the passenger ships " Pearl of Scandinavia ", the " Pearl Seaways " and from " King of Scandinavia " is " King Seaways ". The ships of the Tor Line are included and hot in the future eg " Begonia Seaways " and " Botnia Seaways ". The former Norfolkline vessels are called example " Lagan Seaways ".
New corporate structure since 2010
DFDS employs approximately 6,000 people and operates a fleet of 49 ships. Annual sales in 2011 around 11.6 billion Danish kroner.
The shipping company DFDS divided into two business areas: DFDS Seaways and DFDS Logistics. The DFDS Seaways division includes all Ro/Ro-Fracht- and passenger ship routes and the associated terminals. Other travel services based on four concepts: line transport, package holiday trips, mini cruises and conference trips.
The area DFDS Logistics is responsible for all activities in the road, rail and Lo / Lo areas.
In 2012 DFDS ferry entertained following, of which the first ten of the following compounds are combined passenger and Frachtfährverbindungen while it is pure Frachtfährverbindungen in the following.
- Amsterdam - Newcastle
- Esbjerg - Harwich
- Kiel - Klaipeda
- Copenhagen - Oslo
- Calais - Dover (since February 2012)
- Dunkirk - Dover
- Karlshamn - Klaipeda
- Sassnitz - Klaipeda ( until September 30, 2013)
- Paldiski - Kapellskar
- Kiel - Ust- Luga
- Gothenburg - Brevik / Immingham
- Gothenburg - Tilbury
- Gothenburg - Brevik / Ghent
- Esbjerg - Immingham
- Cuxhaven - Immingham
- Vlaardingen - Felixstowe
- Vlaardingen - Immingham
- Rosyth - Zeebrugge
- Fredericia - Aarhus / Copenhagen / Klaipeda
- Kiel - Karlshamn / St. Petersburg