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Beluga Shipping was a German heavy-lift shipping company in the Hanseatic city of Bremen. It was a world market leader in heavy-lift shipping and also highly innovative in related fields. As such, it was the first to equip ships of its fleet with SkySails that can reduce fuel consumption by up to 5%, and was the first company to send a heavy-lift ship from Europe to Asia along the Northern Sea Route through the Arctic Ocean rather than through the Suez Canal. The company was declared insolvent in March 2011, affecting 670 employees.〔Hansa Magazine volume 145, Hamburg 2008, p. 44-48, ISSN: 0017-7504〕 == History == Beluga Shipping was founded in () in December 1995 by entrepreneur Niels Stolberg, initially as a cargo operator. In 1998, the company acquired its first vessel, the multipurpose heavy-lift carrier MV ''Beluga Obsession''. In 1999, the company built its first new vessel, the MV ''Werder Bremen.''〔()〕 Beluga Shipping grew significantly during the following years. By May 2010, 69 multipurpose heavy-lift carriers were in service for the company, with crane capacities reaching 1,400 tons in tandem usage (P-series). The fleet further increased to 70 units by end of 2010.〔(History of Beluga Shipping )〕 The company offered trade lane management but concentrated on tramp shipping, meaning each transport was organised individually according to the requirements of the cargo and the port of loading and destination. Since 2001, Beluga Shipping expanded its global network. By March 2009, the company ran twelve branch offices on five continents: Rotterdam, The Netherlands; London, United Kingdom; Stavanger, Norway; Moscow, Russia; Mumbai, India; Shanghai and Beijing, China; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Sydney, Australia; São Paulo, Brazil and Houston, USA.〔Hermann Simon mentioned this company in his correspondent Book as an example of a "Hidden Champion" (Simon, Hermann: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century : Success Strategies of unknown World Market Leaders. London: Springer, 2009.- ISBN 978-0-387-98147-5.)〕 On the so-called Teerhof close to the Weser River in Bremen the new headquarters of the company was inaugurated in June 2009. Due to the global recession, from 2010 on Beluga Shipping relied increasingly on financial help by the US financial investment firm Oaktree Capital Management. Since 28 February 2011 developments indicated that Oaktree Capital Management, shareholder with 49.5%, wanted to take over the Beluga-Group. The German Bundeskartellamt confirmed this.〔(US-Investor plant die Übernahme von Beluga ). Artikel der Nordwest-Zeitung. Retrieved 3 March 2011.〕 On 3 March 2011, Niels Stolberg's retirement as CEO was announced and Oaktree appointee Roger Iliffe followed on his chair.〔(Umstrukturierung durch Oaktree - Stolberg ist bei Bremer Beluga-Reederei raus. ) radiobremen.de, loaded at 3 March 2011.〕 With Stolberg, a few other leading managers were replaced.〔http://www.weser-kurier.de/Artikel/Bremen/Wirtschaft/334049/Niels+Stolberg+nicht+mehr++Beluga-Chef+.html〕 Soon after Oaktree's takeover, the company filed for bankruptcy. Oaktree subsequently founded a new heavy-lift shipping company with part of the Beluga Fleet, the Hamburg-based Hansa Heavy Lift. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Beluga Shipping」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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