H. Vogemann
Encyclopedia
The H. Vogemann Group is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 shipping company
Ship transport
Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods . Sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight throughout recorded history. Although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises...

. Founded in 1886, the company is privately owned by its managing partners and its fleet of bulk carrier
Bulk carrier
A bulk carrier, bulk freighter, or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, economic forces have fueled the development of these ships,...

s has a capacity of more than .

The group consists of two companies: Bereederungsgesellschaft H. Vogemann and
H. Vogemann GmbH The former focuses on the fleet's commercial management, and the latter on the company's dry bulk cargo chartering business.

The Bereederungsgesellschaft H. Vogemann company handles the operations and commercial management of the group's fleet. It buys and sells vessels, handles financing and bookkeeping, and handles insurance placement and handling of claims. This company also handles currency hedging and market projection functions.

The H. Vogemann GmbH business unit acts as independent chartering brokers. The company focuses on worldwide dry bulk shipping, providing voyage estimates, full post-fixing services, and customised services.

History

Johann Heinrich Vogemann registered the H. Vogemann company in the Hamburg commercial register on April 22, 1886. The company's first ship was the sailing vessel Western Chief, followed shortly by the Walküre and Rheingold. These early ships mostly in European trade, but the company soon entered the Hamburg to New York market.

This move put the fledgling company in direct competition with Hamburg Amerika-Linie (HAL), known today as Hapag-Lloyd
Hapag-Lloyd
Hapag-Lloyd is a German transportation company comprising a cargo container shipping line, Hapag-Lloyd AG, which in turn owns other subsidiaries such as Hapag-Lloyd Ships and a cruise line, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises which is now integrated into TUI AG, Hanover...

, which was at the time the largest shipping company in the world. Vogemann time-chartered several 10,000 to 12,000-ton tweendeckers to compete in this market. The company was competitive enough that by 1902, H.A.L. started to pay H. Vogelmann to stay out of the North Atlantic market. this compensation was paid until the start World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

World War I brought the company close to ruin. The first blow was that it lost all of its ships early on. Then, when the United States entered the war in 1917, Vogemann could no longer conduct business in the U.S. and had to close its offices in New York, Savannah, New Orleans and Norfolk. After the war, Vogemann was able to re-enter the U.S. market and rebuild its fleet. Business with American concerns was particularly important due to the rampant post-war inflation in Germany.

World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 caused the company similar severe problems. By 1942, the company had lost all its ships for the second time. It was forced to close all its foreign branch offices by 1945. During the war, it was allowed to operate captured foreign ships, but at the end of the war, it was forced to give up all these vessels.

After World War II, the company started to rebuild focusing only on chartering broker business. Soon it built up a fleet of 4 new vessels. In the following 50 years, the company has built its fleet to nineteen vessels, added new partners, and had begun to diversify into other industries.

Fleet

H. Vogemann's fleet currently consists of 19 bulk carriers. In terms of size designations, 6 are capesize
Capesize
Capesize ships are cargo ships originally too large to transit the Suez Canal . To travel between oceans, such vessels used to have to pass either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. In effect Capesize reads as "unlimited"...

, 7 are panamax
Panamax
Panamax and New Panamax are popular terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. Formally, the limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority titled "Vessel Requirements"...

-size, and 6 are handysize
Handysize
Although there is no official definition in terms of exact tonnages, Handysize most usually refers to a dry bulk vessel with deadweight of about 15,000–35,000 tons...

. In terms of capacity, they range from the Voge Eva at to the Voge Master at , with an average capacity of . The average age of ships in the fleet is 11 years, with ships ranging from two to nineteen years of age.

The company's newbuild program calls for 15 ships to be built between 2008 and 2012. It calls for construction of a capesize
Capesize
Capesize ships are cargo ships originally too large to transit the Suez Canal . To travel between oceans, such vessels used to have to pass either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. In effect Capesize reads as "unlimited"...

 bulker of in 2008, two oil tanker
Oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries...

s with capacity of in 2009, and 12 handysize bulkers of to be delivered between 2010 and 2012.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK