Early history
OOCL was founded by C. Y. Tung in 1947 as the Orient Overseas Line. OOCL was the first Asian-based shipping line to transport containerized cargo across the Pacific, doing so in 1969. Consequently, the company was renamed Orient Overseas Container Line. In April 2003, OOCL took delivery of the SX-Class OOCL Shenzhen,[4] the largest container ship ever built at the time, at 8,063 TEU. In 2006, it lost its title to the Emma Mærsk. At its peak, OOCL ran a fleet of over 150 freight ships, with a total cargo capacity exceeding 10 million tons; it was one of the world's top seven shipping lines. At one point it owned the Seawise Giant, the largest ship ever built, having bought it from the shipyard when the previous owners refused delivery. After C. Y. Tung's death in 1982, C. H. Tung assumed the leadership of Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL), OOCL's parent company.
Bankruptcy and recovery
The company declared bankruptcy in the mid-1980s and the mainland-based Bank of China provided $50 million of the $120 million put together by Henry Fok[5] Another big contributor to the OOCL bailout was China Merchants, a Hong Kong arm of China's transport ministry.
In 1996, C. C. Tung took over due to C. H. Tung's election as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
OOCL briefly operated passenger ships acquiring the Ruahine, Rangitoto and Rangitane from the New Zealand Shipping Company that were renamed Oriental Rio, Oriental Carnival and Oriental Esmeralda to operate round the world services. The services ceased in 1976.[6][7]
In September 1970, Tung purchased the ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth to convert it into a floating university, to be known as Seawise University, as part of the World Campus Afloat programme. On 9 January 1972, the ship caught fire during refurbishing and sank in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour and the wreckage had to be scrapped three years later.
Current operations
In 1979, OOCL Logistics Ltd. (OLL), the OOIL Group's international freight consolidation and logistics service unit began its operation.
In recent years, OOCL has taken over a number of shipping lines. These include Furness Withy, Houlder Brothers, Manchester Liners, Shaw Savill, PSNC, Prince Line & the Alexander Shipping Company.[8]
In 2015, OOCL ordered six G-Class container ships.[9] The first of these, the OOCL Hong Kong, was christened on 12 May 2017.[10] The ship became the world's first container ship to exceed 21,000 TEU mark and achieved a Guinness World Record.
