Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 237
1969 was a record year for Egon
Oldendorff with seven newbuildings
totalling 146,470 tdw joining the fleet.
In a commemorative publication
issued on the occasion of his
company’s 50th anniversary, Egon
Oldendorff could look back with
justified pride: his fleet counted 33
units aggregating 726,910 tdw and
barring few exceptions consisted
of ships built to his order. Staff
numbered 1,100 afloat and 54 ashore.
Georg Redmer, in charge of shortsea
chartering, had logged 41 years of
service for Egon Oldendorff.
“He had to build his fleet from
scratch, two times over. The second
time round is remarkable for the fact
that other than foreign shipowners,
German owners received no
compensation for ships lost during
the war or handed over thereafter.
What assistance there was from the
German government almost totally
ignored tramp shipping. Egon
Oldendorff never received any real
reconstruction loans. Acting on his
own initiative and firmly believing in
his own strength and endurance he
laid the base for the second beginning.
One should add here that German
shipping was at a considerable
disadvantage vis-a-vis its European
colleagues owing to the delay in
being permitted to reconstruct.
Thus, foreign competitors could
benefit on a much larger scale from
the Korean War and the first Suez
crisis booms. The negative effects
thereof, notably for German
trampship owners, were obvious.
The high tax load carried by German
shipowners compared with other
owners making the most of flags of
convenience facilities constituted
another handicap. German
shipowners will have to muster all
their experience to hold their own
in the international market place.”
233
The immediate post-anniversary
years were in fact a period of
consolidation. Modern Sunderland
series-built freighters of the SD14
type gradually replaced older
units which Egon Oldendorff sold
to buyers abroad. He also decided
to give up shortsea and European
tramping activities where market
conditions had undergone drastic
changes as from the mid-Sixties.
Shortsea vessels of up to 3,000
tdw, often owned by the shipmaster
himself or by companies that grew
from such modest beginnings
dominated the Baltic and North Sea
trades. The advent of unitisation in
the form of containers and packaged
timber and also RoRo ships ushered
in novel techniques and with
them, new cargo flows. As a direct
consequence of industrialisation
Sweden and Finland increasingly
exported processed goods such as
paper, board and newsprint rather
than timber as a raw material for
paper manufacturing. This went
hand in hand with the decline of
British coal mining and technical
innovations in mining techniques and
brought to an end the movement of
pit props. No longer were the typical
small coasters able to compete
with foreign-flag competitors. Ships
such as the ANNA OLDENDORFF,
GRETKE OLDENDORFF and HILLE
OLDENDORFF had to carry no less
than 21 crew compared with 17 on
Italian-flag vessels. All of this made
Egon Oldendorff decide to depart
from the coastal trades. Trampkotype GEBE OLDENDORFF became the
smallest ship in his fleet at about
7,500 tdw. Instead, he focussed his
attention on tank shipping.
