Polska Żegluga Morska known as Polsteam or PŻM, is a cargo ship operator based in Szczecin,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Polsteam is a state-owned enterprise with around 3,000 employees.

Company history

Polsteam was founded in 1951, nationalizing the assets of two Polish pre-

WWII 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 ...

marine freight companies ( Gdynia America Line and ), making it the oldest Polish cargo ship operator in existence. POL Gdansk Soldek 2008 (1)

Initially, Polsteam's fleet comprised 11 ships of joint carrying capacity of approx 27,000 DWT.60 years of Polsteam - difficult beginnings. „Obserwator morski”, p. 17, 2010. ISSN 1899-5373 Among those ships there were: four of the so-called. ''French ships'', which were steamers built in 1926 in French shipyard of Chantiers Navals Français, in Blainville: SS Wieluń, SS Kraków, SS Toruń, SS Poznań, the oldest of the acquired ships was SS Narocz (2,520 DWT) built in 1915 in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

, SS Narew (310 DWT) a small

coaster Coaster (stylized as COASTER) is a commuter rail service in the central and northern coastal regions of San Diego County, California, United States operated by the North County Transit District (NCTD). The commuter rail line features eight s ...

built in 1944 in

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 SS Elbląg (1,699 DWT) built in 1944. Four ships of B-30 series, constructed in 1949 in Gdańsk Shipyard: SS Sołdek (first ship in the post-

history of the Polish shipbuilding industry), SS Jedność Robotnicza, SS Pstrowski and SS Brygada Makowskiego (built in 1950). In early years of Polsteam's existence, the ship owner's vessels navigated on short and midrange sea routes (i.e. 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 ...

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

and

Mediterranean Sea 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 ...

). During the course of the first five years, they carried

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

, and iron ore. 80-90% of shipping involved tramping services and although the ship operator had three lines since 1951 namely: Szczecin - Stockholm, Szczecin -

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

- Rouen and Szczecin -

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

- Antwerp.

Fleet

It operates a fleet of 75 vessels (total: 2,500,000 DWT), mostly dry bulk carriers. Polsteam's particular specialty is the transportation of liquid sulfur.http://www.polsteam.com.pl/flota Polsteam Fleet Polsteam also operates a passenger ferry service between

Świnoujście Świnoujście (; german: Swinemünde ; nds, Swienemünn; all three meaning "Świna ivermouth"; csb, Swina) is a city and seaport on the Baltic Sea and Szczecin Lagoon, located in the extreme north-west of Poland. Situated mainly on the islands o ...

and the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

ports of

Ystad Ystad (; older da, Ysted) is a town and the seat of Ystad Municipality, in Scania County, Sweden. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, a ...

and

Trelleborg Trelleborg () is a town in Skåne County, Sweden, with 43,359 inhabitants as of December 31, 2015. It is the southernmost town in Sweden located some west from the southernmost point of Sweden and the Scandinavian peninsula. It is one of the ...

via its subsidiary ''

Unity Line Unity Line is a Polish company that operates RoRo and train ferry services between Świnoujście in Poland and the Swedish ports of Ystad and Trelleborg. Routes Unity Line operates two routes across the Baltic Sea. *Świnoujście - Ystad *Świn ...

''. The PZM line operates a bi-weekly service from the IJmuiden docks in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

to the North American port of

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

. Five 35,600-tonners were built in Japan by

Mitsui is one of the largest ''keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. ( general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industries ...

over the years 1999-2000, and eight 30,000-tonners were built in China by Nanting Mingde over the years 2010-12. The older "Ziemia" class vessels were withdrawn from the Great Lakes trade before 2013. The dimensions are limited by the locks of the

Saint Lawrence Seaway The St. Lawrence Seaway (french: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent) is a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North Ameri ...

and the 40 ft draught of the

Great Lakes Waterway The Great Lakes Waterway (GLW) is a system of natural channels and artificial canals which enable navigation between the North American Great Lakes. Though all of the lakes are naturally connected as a chain, water travel between the lakes was i ...

. The Great Lakes Fleet comprise:cruisepeople.co.uk: "PZM Polish Steamship Company"
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Polsteam Ships

File:MS Armia Krajowa by Bellsund.jpg, MS Armia Krajowa File:Rega Polsteam Welland Canal 1.jpg, MS Rega File:Brosen bulk carrier m rataj.jpg, MS Maciej Rataj File:Isa Polsteam Welland Canal 4.jpg, MS Isa File:Polsteam Wicko.jpg, MS Wicko on Lake Superior in Duluth, MN

References

External links

*
Polsteam website

Website of ''Unity Line'', Polsteam's ferry service

Polish Maritime Portal
{{Authority control Companies based in Szczecin Transport companies established in 1951 Shipping companies of Poland Polish brands 1951 establishments in Poland

Company history

Fleet

Polsteam Ships

See also

References

External links