Chapter 2 Great Contribution and Accomplishments
Part I: Shipping, Showcase of Courage and Magnanimity
Shipping is a trade that Ningbonese are adept at and really going for and that may date back to the Tang and the Song dynasties. The shipping history of Ningbo Bang is characterized by constant innovation and self-transcendence. When Shanghai began to rise in modern times, they took the opportunity and started with junks; when the new style ship emerged, they thrived under the escort of ship “Pao Shun”. With the transformation of society, they set up a shipping empire in Hong Kong, and developed themselves into a great force in the world shipping industry that boasted two Kings of the Sea.
1. Starting the Age of Commercial Ships in China
Before the rise of steamships, the junk was the most important transportation tool, as was shown in the saying that “most of the rich families in Shanghai started up with junks. Yet the once prosperous trade declined with the invasion of foreign shipping forces after the Opium War. The revolutionary change in the Chinese shipping industry began with the service of the first Chinese ship “Pao Shun,” bought by natives of Ningbo in 1854.
2. The Rise of National Shipping Industry
After the Opium War, the junk trade declined with the invasion of foreign ships in Chinese waters. Yet the founding of Yung Ann Ship Firm, Ningshao Shipping Company and North Shipping Group broke the foreign monopoly of shipping in the rivers and seas in China, and marked the emergence of Ningbo Bang-based national shipping system. By then, Ningbonese had finished the transition from traditional junk trade to the modern shipping industry.
Grouping Management of Oceanic Shipping: In 1915, Yu Ya Ching founded the North Shipping Group, which consisted of North Steamboat Co., Hong Ann Ferry Co., Ning Hsing Steamship Co., and Hong Sheng Wharf and Store Co., and set up branches elsewhere.
China’s Largest Private Shipping Group: After years of management, North Shipping Group had developed itself into the largest private shipping group in China, owning over 30 vessels with a total tonnage of over 91,000 tons, 1/7 of Chinese private shipping tonnage. In its prime, it even extended its service to Saigon, Rangoon and other places in South East Asia.
Nationwide Cooperation in the Shipping Industry: C. Y. Tung, who chaired the Tianjin Shipping Co., advocated the shipping guideline of “transporting our own goods with our ships” and got the right to barge imported goods in Tianjin Port through multi-sided negotiations, breaking the foreign monopoly of shipping in North China. Tung wrote The Plan to Reorganize the Shipping Industry and submitted it to the then Ministry of Transportation. In July 1934, he effected the all-side cooperation of over 20 shipping companies and the founding of Shanghai-Tianjin Shipping Federation, which greatly sped up the development of the national shipping industry.
3. Forging Ahead against Tossing Waves
Transformation under the New Shipping Mechanism In 1912, Li Yong-shang reorganized “Kiu Dah Junk Firm” into “New Shipping Co., Ltd” and the share-holding system sped up the junk-to-ship transformation. In 1930, Chen Shuntong launched the first sole-funded Chinese shipping corporation, Shanghai Chung Wei Steamship Co., Ltd, which had a total tonnage of 20,000 tons after its successive purchase of such new vessels as “Hsin Tai Ping”, “Shun Foong”, and “Yuen Chang”, among which “Shun Foong” was then the largest freighter in China.
Interactive development: In 1917, Koo Chung Rui launched the Tai Chong Cheang customs agency, which was renamed Tai Chong Cheang Steamship Company in 1926, when its service was extended to include shipping. The company rose to great fame when its two subsidiaries, Yung Ann Ferry Co., Ltd and Yung Hoo Shipping Co., Ltd, started the river-sea combined transport in 1931.
Great Achievement in Chinese Ocean Shipping History
In 1936, C. Y. Tung launched the China Shipping Trust Company in Shanghai and introduced credit into the shipping industry. In 1946, he set up in Shanghai “China Maritime Trust, Ltd” and “China Union Lines Ltd”, and started ocean shipping after purchasing such ships as “Ling Yung”, “Tzse Yung”, “Tang Shan” and “Chong Lee”. In 1947 and 1948, Tung’s “Tien Loong” and “Tung Ping” freighters successfully made their first voyages to France and America respectively, which was a great achievement in Chinese deep-sea shipping history.
4. Transfer to Hong Kong for Overseas Development
Initiating Modern Shipping Industry in Hong Kong
In 1946, “Tai Chong Cheang Steamship Co., (HK) Ltd” launched by Koo Chung Rui became the origin of Ningbo Bang’s shipping management in Hong Kong.
Overseas Development: In 1949, Robert C.F. Ho launched the “Magsaysay Shipping Lines,” and promoted the compilation of Pilipino and Canadian shipping rules and regulations.
Tung Chao Yung: Initiator of HK’s Shipbuilding Prosperity
In 1950, C. Y. Tung set up Island Navigation International Co., Ltd and became the first ship-owner to build ships, which broke the practice in HK that ship-owners only bought instead of building ships themselves. In 1959, he built the 70,000-ton tanker “Oriental Giant”, one of the 10 largest tankers in the world. In 1977, he partnered with others to take over Eurasia Shipyard and in 1979 completed the 560,000-ton tanker “Seawise Giant,” the largest in the world.
Pao Yue-Kong: a Rising Star in Ocean Shipping
Sir Y. K. Pao purchased the freighter “Golden Alpha” with 770,000 HKD and started his shipping career in 1955, and by 1956, he had had a fleet of 7 vessels. In 1962, he set up World Maritime Co., (Bahamas) Ltd with HSBC. In 1967, he purchased oil carriers of varied sizes and founded “World-Wide Shipping Co. Ltd” for oil shipping. With more than a dozen branches and agencies in New York, London, and Tokyo, Pao had forged a maritime shipping empire in only twelve years.
Koo Chung Rui: A Success Inherited for Generations
Koo Chung Rui moved Tai Chong Cheang Steamship Co. Ltd to Hong Kong in 1949. In 1972, his third son Koo Kou Hoo took over his father’s company, while his oldest son Koo Kou Min launched “Valles Steamship Co., Ltd (HK)” and prospered his family cause. In 1990, Koo Kou Hwa, his second son, became group Chairman of Tai Chong Cheang Steamship Co., (HK) Ltd., and his grandson, Kenneth C.K. Koo, is its present chairman.
5． Emergence of King of the Sea
Emergence of the First Chinese Shipping Magnate: In 1973, C. Y. Tung had “Island Navigation Corporation” renamed as “Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd.” In 1972, he purchased the luxury oceanliner “Queen Elizabeth”, and in 1980, he took over a British and a US steamboat company. With 149 vessels and a total of 12,000,000 tons and providing shipping service all over the world, Tung became one of the Seven World Shipping Magnates.
Future-Minded World-Wide Group Y.K. Pao was elected president of INTERTANKO in 1979. He achieved great success by the acquisition of the Wharf (holdings) in 1980. Meanwhile, he took the initiative to purchase China-made vessels, and quickly moved China’s ship-building industry to the world stage. By 1981, the World-Wide had truly become King of the Sea, No. 1 of the world shipping corporations, with 210 vessels and a total tonnage of 21,000,000 tons.
Successfully Defending the Title of King of the Sea: It is only natural that in the course of development, companies may wax and wane like the tide. At the end of 1995, with the launch of the largest container ship “OOCL Hong Kong”, “Orient Overseas” rose up again and Tung Chee Hwa became the new King of the Sea. But in 2003, Helmut Sohmen and Anna Pao, successors of Sir Y.K. Pao, acquired Norway shipping magnate, Bergesen Group, and World-World Group regained the title of King of the Sea, with 108 ships and a total tonnage of 22, 300,000 tons.
6. Rise of Navigation Education
A New Mode of Navigation Talent Cultivation: In 1970, after purchasing oceanliner “Queen Elizabeth”, C.Y. Tung had the intention of converting it into a “Seawise University.” However, the liner sank in Hong Kong harbor due to a fire during refurbishing, but the “World Campus Afloat” set up on the oceanliner “Atlantic” was rather successful, and Tung’s seawise university went on to set a new mode of navigation education for ocean liners.
Training Navigation Talents at Hometown: In 1997, Koo Kou Hwa made donations for the construction of Chung Rui Navigation Building in Ningbo University, donating such equipment as navigation simulators. Besides setting up the Chung Rui Excellent Student Scholarship in the Maritime College of the university, he also invited foreign experts to give lectures there in an effort to help improve the teaching quality of the college. He also accepted the first batch of graduates from the Maritime College to work in his shipping companies.
7. Contributions to Ningbo’s Development in Navigation
Dedicated to the Navigation at Hometown In 1984, investor Pao Yue-Hsing set up a joint venture, “Ningbo Huagang Ferry Co., Ltd”, to provide high-speed passenger service between Shanghai and Ningbo. In June, 1986, the company’s first high-speed ferry “Yongxing” was put into operation, shortening significantly the voyage between Ningbo and Shanghai which resulted in the development of Ningbo shipping industry and had subsequently played an important role in the city’s opening-up efforts.
“OOCL Ningbo”, A Pride of Chinese
In 2004, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd named its world-largest container ship as “OOCL Ningbo” at Beilun Second Container Wharf of Ningbo Port, in recognition to a successful cooperation between the largest deep port in China and a world-known shipping company. The success of its first voyage of “OOCL Ningbo” is not only beneficial to the upgrading of Ningbo Port’s international position as a large seaport in the East, but also to the further promotion of the overall development of Zhejiang province, and Ningbo in particular.
