K Line European Sea Highway Services GmbH (KESS) is a
roll-on/roll-off
Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
shipping line based in
Bremen,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and is a subsidiary of the Japanese shipping line
K Line
is a Japanese transportation company. It owns a fleet that includes dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals. It used to be the fourteenth largest contai ...
.
Company overview
KESS was founded by
K Line Tokyo in 2003 and operates with a fleet of 11 car carrier vessels in Western and Northern Europe. KESS specialises in feeder traffic, known as short sea shipping, between the large car terminals in Bremerhaven and Zeebrugge and various smaller car terminals in the North Sea and Baltic Sea area. It transports around 800,000 vehicles per year.
KESS has its roots in a joint venture established in 1991 between KESS parent company "K" Line Tokyo and the former Bremen - based automotive logistics company and shipowner Egon H. Harms.
KESS was created by to both offer an intra Europe short sea service to Japanese car makers manufacturing cars in European plants, and to provide feeder carriage to smaller European ports not called at by larger oceanic vessels.
The company in fact specializes in the maritime transport and distribution of cargo such as automobiles, trucks, trailers,
Mafi roll trailers, heavy construction machineries and further types of rolling cargo.
The main trade lanes are European, and specifically ports in North Continent Europe, including
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
,
UK,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
,
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
,
Baltic region and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
.
The company operates 11
roll-on/roll-off
Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
ships.
Fleet
(Status: January 2023)
[''The Fleet''](_blank)
kess.kline.de, retrieved 22 January 2020.
Facts and accidents
KESS ships are distinguished from those of its parent company
K Line
is a Japanese transportation company. It owns a fleet that includes dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals. It used to be the fourteenth largest contai ...
by having their hull painted in red as opposed to the grey of K Line.
On 21 September 2017,
Greenpeace activists attempted to block the discharging of
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...
Suv
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...
and cars into
Sheerness port, disrupting for several hours the operations of ''mv Elbe Highway''.
On 23 July 2018,
car carrier
Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or usin ...
vessel ''Makassar Highway'' ran aground at full speed in the
Tjust
Tjust () was one of the small lands of Småland, Sweden. It was divided into the hundreds of Tjust Northern Hundred and Tjust Southern Hundred. It corresponds to Västervik Municipality and the southern part of Valdemarsvik Municipality.
E ...
archipelago near
Loftahammar
Loftahammar () is a locality situated in Västervik Municipality, Kalmar County
Kalmar County () is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Kronoberg, Jönköping, Blekinge and Östergötland. To the east in the Ba ...
,
Sweden, causing an
oil spill.
Ships gallery
File:Liesel 15-06-2012 KESS Danube Highway auf der Ostsee.JPG, mv Danube Highway
File:2017-06-11 Autotransporter MAIN HIGHWAY im Nord-Ostsee-Kanal (2139).jpg, mv Main Highway
File:Elbe Highway (ship, 2005).jpg, mv Elbe Highway
File:Weser Highway Roro.jpg, mv Weser Highway
File:Luftaufnahmen Nordseekueste 2013 05 by-RaBoe 616.jpg, KESS vessel
See also
*
K Line
is a Japanese transportation company. It owns a fleet that includes dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals. It used to be the fourteenth largest contai ...
*
United European Car Carriers
United European Car Carriers (UECC) is a Norwegian roll-on/roll-off shipping line, created in 1990 and based in Oslo, Norway. The company primarily transports cargo on short sea routes within Europe.
History
The company had its roots in Ugland-A ...
*
Nissan Motor Car Carrier
Nissan Motor Car Carrier Co., Ltd. (Abbreviation: NMCC; ja, 日産専用船株式会社, Nissan Senyōsen Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese roll-on/roll-off shipping company owned by Nissan Motors (60%) and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (40%).
Overview
Th ...
*
Euro Marine Logistics
Euro Marine Logistics NV (EML) is a European short sea roll-on/roll-off shipping and logistics company, with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. It was originally jointly owned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Höegh Autoliners, before MOL acquired fu ...
*
Toyofuji Shipping
*
Nippon Yusen Kaisha
References
{{Reflist
External links
K Line RORO – web siteKESS website
Shipping companies of Germany
Ro-ro shipping companies
Car carrier shipping companies