Page 22 - Port of Hamburg |Brochure |Port of Hamburg Magazine 2.2021

■ BREAKBULK
Fully loaded westbound
This year the Chinese-Polish joint venture Chipolbrok celebrates its 70th anniversary. It is currently successfully sailing with 14 of its own ships and six on charter.
Chinese products seem to be of ever-growing interest for the European market. These consist, not just of raw materials, but equally of consumer goods and the com- plete industrial and wind power plants that Chipolbrok is more and more often transporting East-West. This makes a positive impact on Chipolbrok’s business. “Cur- rently we have a good run to Europe. Eight vessels sail fully loaded to various ports in Europe. Among these are two XL charter vessels,” states the company.
After her detour around the Cape of Good Hope, for in- stance, in mid-May the ‘Qian Kun’ was in Hamburg, af- ter already delivering wind power plants and smaller consignments of all kinds in Antwerp, her first dis- charge port. The vessel unloaded similar products in the Port of Hamburg. From there she continued to Szczecin to deliver a large shipment of industrial com- ponents. Finally, in Gdansk typical liner cargoes con- sisting of big bags, machinery and steel products were landed.
This small example on the East-West route shows that the Chinese-Polish group has an eventful history that commenced on 15 June 1951. At the time, the recent- ly founded People’s Republic of China was seeking trading partners with a distinctly maritime economy and came across Poland. The result was a new compa- ny, of which two equal parts were reporting to the Shipping Ministry of the People’s Republic of China
The ‘Paderewski’ regularly calls
at the Port of Hamburg
and the Communications Ministry of the People’s Re- public of Poland. Today an under-secretary still repre- sents each country’s stake in the company. Also un- changed is the fact that parity applies to filling all management positions and higher levels of the hierar- chy. Cooperation between the two nationalities func- tions extremely well.
The cooperation agreement was signed in Tianjin on 15 June 1951. This provided for the headquarters to be set up in Tianjin, with one branch going to Gdynia, Po- land. To negate the blockage then of investments in China, the company was declared as a broker. It was able to commence operating as such, instead of calling itself a shipping company. This resulted in the name ‘Chinese-Polish Ship Broker Company’, later emerging as the ‘Chipolbrok’ brand. The basis for the employ- ment of the vessels was initially the bilateral exchange of goods between Poland and China. Goods flows fol- lowed from all over Europe, though primarily from East- ern European countries via Gdynia. For decades, the port served as the hub for Chipolbrok’s East-West ser- vices. The company is among the world’s leading heavy lift shipping companies, when large, bulky pro- ject shipments need to be despatched. In addition, Chipolbrok also reinforced its dry freight operations, which led to optimization of ship deployments and re- turns. The emphasis in shipping activities is on the
22 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | June 2021
© Chipolbrok