Logistics Company Launches First British Shipping Line in 40 Years

Reflecting the trend for logistic companies and manufacturers trying to gain stronger control over shipments after two years of supply chain disruptions, British freight forwarded Allseas Global Logistics celebrated its launch earlier this year of it its own shipping company. The company announced this week its Allseas Shipping Company, calling it the first British registered shipping line launched in 40 years.

According to the company, the new shipping line is a natural extension of its existing expertise and business. The company began chartering ships nearly a year ago, a the time reporting it was paying some of the highest rates in the industry to gain stronger control over shipments. They said the new shipping line combines the logistics and chartering expertise of Allseas Global Logistics with the container equipment experience of its 1st Containers operation and the shipping liner agency experience of DKT Allseas. 

The launch of the new shipping line was kicked off with a long-term vessel charter for a 2000 TEU fully cellular container vessel. The company chartered a 19-year-old vessel formerly known as the Valdivia and rechristened her Allseas Pioneer. Registered in Liberia, she is 619 feet long. The company kicked off the service in March 2022 as an expansion of its operations over the past year to China.

“The Allseas Pioneer is the first in a series of six of our own branded container vessels, with an investment of over $150 million,” said Darren Wright, co-founder of Allseas Shipping Company and Group. “Such is the commitment we have to the new company and the customers using it to steady their supply chains.”

The line will specialize in import and export services from China to UK/Europe, along with import services from Bangladesh to the UK/Europe, offering direct routes to greatly reduce shipping transit times from origin to destination. It is an expansion of the company’s China Xpress service and its latest Bangladesh service, Asia Xpress. The company reports it is already working on new service routes which will include calls in Genoa, Valencia, East India, Vietnam, and Cambodia, along with Transpacific routes to the United States and Canada.

With a fleet of six similar sized container ships, Allseas says it will give the company complete control of departure and arrival timescales and massively improve schedule integrity, which is of paramount importance to customers. 

Allseas joins others including German retailer Lidl which launched its own shipping company earlier this year. Others including Amazon, FexEx, and even a Wisconsin-based logistic company Schneider National, all chartered vessels during the pandemic. A Chinese furniture manufacturer even ordered the construction of a containership speculating on the future market opportunities.