Empresa Líneas Marítimas Argentinas (ELMA) ( en, Argentine Shipping Lines Company) was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

cargo

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...

line formed on September 30, 1960, after

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected P ...

nationalised the shipping industry. The Argentine Maritime Lines Company involved the merger of two companies, both state: the Merchant Fleet of the State (FME) and Argentina Fleet of Navigation of Ultramar (FANU). It served Argentina's foreign trade until the 1990s, when the government of Carlos Menem declared its dissolution. At its peak its fleet had more than 60 ships (approximately 700,000 tonnes DW). Ships sailed to Northern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

, the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

, the east coasts of the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

, the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

World War II ships

One of the first ships was a used

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

ship; in 1946 the was sold to Compañía Argentina de Navegación Dodero, Buenos Aires, Argentina and renamed SS ''Campero''. In 1949 she was sold to Flota Argentina de Navegación de Ultramar, Buenos Aires. In 1961 she was sold to Empresa Líneas Marítimas Argentinas, Buenos Aires. In 1972 she was scrapped at Campana, Argentina. ;Other ships purchased: *

Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace losses caused by German submarines. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slight ...

s: , , , , , , , , , , , and . *

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass ...

s: and . *

Park ship Park ships were merchant steamships constructed for Canada’s Merchant Navy during the Second World War. Park ships and Fort ships (built in Canada for operation by the British) were the Canadian equivalent of the American Liberty ships. All th ...

: SS ''Kootenay Park'' (2)

ELMA and the Argentine naval industry

During the 1960s a fleet renewal plan was put in place, giving priority to constructions in Argentine shipyards. ''Lago Argentino'', ''Lago Aluminé'' and ''Almirante Stewart'' ships were built by State Shipyards and Naval Factories ( ''Astilleros y Fabricas Navales del Estado''- AFNE). After these, three more were built: ''Río de la Plata'', ''Río Paraná'' and ''Rio Calchaquí''. With these successes five more ships were built: ''Río Cincel'', ''Río Teuco'', ''Río Deseado'', ''Río Gualeguay'' and ''Río Iguazú''. The shipyards

ASTARSA Astilleros Argentinos Río de La Plata S.A. (mostly known for its acronym ASTARSA, which can be roughly translated as ''Argentine Shipyards of Río de la Plata'') was an Argentine shipyard. Its core business was building and repairing ships and ...

( ''Astilleros Argentinos Río de La Plata S.A.'') built the ships ''Río Limay, Río Esquel and Río Olivia''. A series of six ships were built: ''Almirante Storni'', ''Neuquén II'', ''Libertador General José de San Martín'', ''Dr Atilio Malvagni'', ''President Ramón S. Castillo'' and ''General Manuel Belgrano''. Then a series of three ships: ''Buenos Aires II'', ''Córdoba'' and ''La Pampa''. This brought the ELMA fleet to 23 ships totaling just over 272,000 tonnes. The last additions to the fleet came with three refrigerated vessels from Alianza Shipyards ( ''Astilleros Alianza''): ''Glaciar Perito Moreno'', ''Glaciar Viedma'' and ''Glaciar Ameghino''. And two AFNE container ships: ''Isla Gran Malvina'' and ''Isla Soledad''. Argentine Lines (ELMA - Empresa Líneas Marítimas Argentinas)
/ref>

Falklands war

In 1982 the ELMA ships ''Río Carcarañá'' and ''Formosa'' participated in the

Falklands war The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

( ''Guerra de las Malvinas''), which resulted in the sinking of the former by British fire and the damage of the latter due to friendly fire.

Demise

ELMA was dismantled during the 1990s as part of president

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...

's 1990s state reform laws.

References

External links

ELMA at theshipslist.com
*

(''accessed 2018-11-17'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Empresa Lineas Maritimas Argentinas Shipping companies of Argentina Argentine companies established in 1960 1996 disestablishments in Argentina Defunct transport companies of Argentina