Following a merger of two of Germany’s largest shipping companies, E. R. Schiffahrt and Komrowski Befrachtungskontor, the country’s largest shipping group now has a British name: Blue Star Holding. The jointly managed fleet consists of 143 vessels: 114 container ships, 25 bulk carriers and four multipurpose units. In terms of deadweight capacity, Blue Star has become Germany’s largest shipping group at around ten million tonnes deadweight.
E. R. Schiffahrt is part of the Erck Rickmers Group, but the new undertaking does not include nine platform supply vessels and four anchor handlers managed by E. R. Offshore subsidiary. The established brand names and the heritage of the individual companies within the merger are being retained, but the name Blue Star, which Komrowski purchased in 2009, has been adopted for marketing purposes because ‘it is a historic name with a venerable heritage’. The new holdingcompany hopes to increaseits fleet to between 200 and250 vessels.
