The Compagnie Industrielle et de Transports au Stanley Pool (CITAS) was a Belgian company involved in transport on the Congo River between 1902 and 1955, in what was first the Congo Free State and then the Belgian Congo, today the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The company evolved from owning a shipyard in Léopoldville (now (Kinshasa) to providing transport services on the Congo, and then to running a port in Léopoldville.
Shipyard and boat
The first Compagnie Industrielle et de Transports au Stanley Pool (CITAS) was incorporated in 1902. It was based in Léopoldville, where it owned a steamboat and operated a factory and shipyard. It also managed payments to agents of companies while they waited to leave for the upper Congo. CITAS was established on land formerly occupied by Teke people in the precolonial village of Nshasa (Kinshasa). The company was taken over by the Compagnie du Congo pour le Commerce et l’Industrie (CCCI), with headquarters in Brussels.
Transport company
A new transport company named CITAS was founded in 1907, which took over the Léopoldville facilities of the Société anonyme belge pour le commerce du Haut-Congo (SAB) and the Société Belgica. The company was established on 17 December 1907 and had headquarters at 20 rue de Namur in Brussels. The botanist Franz Thonner came up from the coast by railway around the end of 1908.