Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: MacAndrews

#ports&shipping - In what was considered to be the oldest existing shipping company and originally Scottish based has merged this month with a French owned container giant's Finnish subsidiary, writes Jehan Ashmore

MacAndrews which was established in 1770 dissapeared from the shipping scene on 1 April marking a long association as part of the UK shipping industry. The demise of MacAndrews GmBH followed the merger by French owners CMA CGM into a single brand through their subsidiary Containerships.

In 2002 MacAndrews had been aquired by the German concern that led to headquarters relocating to Hamburg, but retained its original name. The company the following year was acquired by CMA CGM from Andrew Weir Shipping whose ship managment arm as previously reported on Afloat included former RMS St. Helena which notably made a once-off charter cruise to Irish ports

The historic company of MacAndrews Line can trace its origins to its founder William McAndrew from Elgin, Scotland. At just 18 year's old, he traded in importing fruit from Spain, Portugal and the Azores. This led offices to be opened in London and Liverpool.

MacAndrews operations included calls to Ireland that continue through Containerships in the provision of Intra-European transport. Of the Irish ports Containerships call to Dublin, Cork and Belfast.

Among the network of routes from Ireland is the Portugal Service linking the Iberian nation with the UK, Ireland, France, Spain and the Netherlands. This is a two-loop weekly door-to-door multimodal service linking the ports of Liverpool, Dublin, Setúbal, Leixoes, Dunkirk, Rotterdam and Tilbury.

A trio of containerships, each with a 803TEU nominal capacity operate the service among them MV Ranger (pictured above) in Dublin Port at DSG's lo-lo terminal. Also note yesterday's related stories.

The integration of MacAndrews into Containerships will allow for the creation of a tailored intra-regional service, in what CMA CGM Group desrcibe as a “Customer Centricity” strategy. To service Containerships 26 maritime services and 8 inland services there is a fleet of 32 vessels and 700 trucks.

Published in Ports & Shipping

As an island economy, a healthy maritime sector is key to our national competitiveness. Virtually all our imports and exports pass through Irish ports.

Ireland is dependent on ports and shipping services to transport goods and 90% of our trade is moved though Irish ports. Shipping and maritime transport services make a significant contribution to Ireland’s ocean economy, with the sector generating €2.3 billion in turnover and employing over 5,000 people in 2018.

Ireland’s maritime industry continues to grow and progress each year with Irish ports and shipping companies making significant investments. The ports sector in Ireland is currently undergoing a number of expansions and developments with Dublin Port’s Alexandra Basin development, the development of Ringaskiddy in Cork by Port of Cork and the development of Shannon Foynes Port. Along with these major investments, shipping companies are also investing heavily in new tonnage, with Irish Ferries, CLdN and Stena leading new build programmes.

These pages cover the following sectoral areas: shipowners, harbour authorities, shipbrokers, freight forwarders and contractors, cruise liner operators, port users, seamen, merchants, academic institutions, shipyards and repair facilities, naval architects, navy and defence personnel.

Our pages are covering some of the most notable arrivals around our coast and reporting too on port development and shipping news.

This section of the site deals with Port and Shipping News on our largest ports Dublin Port, Port of Cork, the Shannon Estuary, Galway Harbour and Belfast Lough.

A recent study carried out for the Irish Ports Association (IPA) totalled 75.7 billion during 2004 and their net economic impact was some 5.5 billion supporting around 57, 500 full time employees.

Liam Lacey, Director of the Marine Institute’s Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) said, “The Irish maritime industry can look to the future with confidence. It has shown itself to be resilient and agile in responding to challenges. Over the past decade, it has had to respond to the challenges of the financial crisis of 2008, the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and recent challenges. Ireland’s maritime sector has continued to underpin our economy by maintaining vital shipping links for both trade and tourism.”