HISTORY OF THE ALPINA REEDEREI AG CHUR
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HISTORY OF THE ALPINA REEDEREI AG CHUR
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Early 1987 the Alpina Reederei AG, which managed the deep sea vessels of the Schweizerische Reederei und Neptun AG, Basel (SRN), suspended all her activities. The last two vessels sailing under Swiss flag, the small reefer ships BASILEA and TURICIA were handed over in February 1987 to Panalpina, Basel for commercial and technical management. Without change of name the vessels were registered under Cyprus flag and in 1996 finally sold to foreign interests. Uwe R. Nüsse from Hamburg, who owns a broker firm in Hamburg and kept business relations over many years with the Alpina Reederei AG, took over in October 1998 all shares of the dormant company, the idea was to bring the firm to a new life. Since 2000 the company's legal address is with a trust company in Chur, the capital of the canton of Grisons, Switzerland. This new shipping company has absolutely nothing to do with the old share holders, nor with the former management of the Alpina or SRN, but is a completely new, independent enterprise. However, as company logo the old house flag of the Schweizerische Reederei was retained. The first ship, the bulk carrier CALANDA was delivered in May 2000 from the Argentinian ship builder Astillero Rio Santiago, Ensenada, a small town about 60 km southeast of Buenos Aires. The builders offered at the time favourable financial conditions, however building progress was rather slow. Until 2008 a total of six vessels of the same type were constructed, of which two ships are still in service with the company, the remaining four units were sold in the meantime. The vessels were financed by a Swiss and a German bank. These bulk carriers sail under the flag of the Marshall Islands (in the Southpacific) and are engaged in worldwide trade. The crews are all from the Philippines. Columbia Shipmanagement, Limassol, Cyprus, a well known, German controlled company, takes care of all technical and crewing matters. Commercially the ships are handled by Mr. Nüsse from his home in the mountains of eastern Switzerland and by his broker house Uwe R. Nüsse Shipping GmbH in Hamburg. HPS-SwissShips, January 2015
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