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Orient Overseas Container Line




Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) is a Hong Kong -based Container shipping and logistics service company. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL) .

OOCL was founded by C. Y. Tung In 1947 as the Orient Overseas Line. It changed its name to Orient Overseas Container Line in 1969 , when it began the process of Containerization .

At its peak, OOCL had a shipping fleet with over 150 freight ships, with a cargo capacity exceeding 10 million tons; it was one of the world's top seven shipping lines. At one stage it also owned the '' Seawise Giant '', the largest ship ever built.

The OOCL has suffered setbacks throughout its history, the first during the early 1970s . In September of 1970 , Tung purchased the famous oceanliner '' RMS Queen Elizabeth '' to convert it into a floating university, to be known as ''Seawise University'', in his efforts to keep the World Campus Afloat program alive. On January 9 , 1972 , the ship caught fire during refurbishing and sank into Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour ; the wreckage had to be scrapped three years later.

After C. Y. Tung's death in 1982 , C. H. Tung , assumed the leadership of Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL), OOCL's parent company for 14 years. In 1996, C C Tung took over at the helm on C H Tung's election as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region .

Today, OOCL is one of the world's largest shipping and logistics companies, with more 230 offices in 58 countries around the world. OOCL provides in excess of 70 services covering international trading markets with a fleet of more than 270 ships, including Grand Alliance member line vessels, feeder and OOCL-owned and operater vessels.


TRIVIA

  • The company emblem of the OOCL is a plum blossom, the national flower of the Republic Of China .


  • In the past, all important or large ships of the OOCL had names that began with the word "Seawise", which was a pun on C. Y. Tung's initials.


  • Since 1989, cargo liners or containerships belonging to OOCL have all had "OOCL" attached at the beginning of their names.


  • The ''OOCL Shenzhen'' (yard No. 1418) was the first in a fleet of twelve SX-class vessels to be built by Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. of South Korea for delivery to OOCL by the end of 2007. Other SX-class vessels in service include, ''OOCL Long Beach, OCCL Rotterdam, OCCL Hamburg, OCCL Qingdao, OCCL Ningbo, OOCL Atlanta, OOCL Tianjin, OOCL Europe, OOCL Tokyo'' and the ''OOCL Asia''.


  • The SX-class vessels were once recognised by the Guinness World Record as having the largest declared capacity in the world at 8,063 TEUs, making it the largest containership in the world, with a service speed of 25 knots. This has now been surpassed by container ships such as the Emma Mærsk which was released on the 12th of August 2006 with a capacity of 11,000 TEU.



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