Latvian Shipping Company (, ) is a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

shipping company A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...

founded on 29 October 1940 and listed on the NASDAQ OMX Riga. The company owns 20 ships, employing more than 700 seamen from Latvia. The total carrying capacity of the LK fleet is 957 974 DWT and the average age of the fleet does not exceed 6.5 years. Its main shareholder is

Ventspils Nafta Ventspils () is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and ...

(49.94%).

History

The date of the company's foundation is 29 October 1940, when the Latvian State Shipping Company was established by a decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Its fleet consisted of 54 vessels. After the war, the Latvian State Navy had only eight ships. In the late 1950s, the fleet began to be renewed with new ships. In 1961, the oil base of the Ventspils port began to operate, and the shipping industry began to specialise in oil transport. The fleet was expanded with tankers, reefers, gas carriers and container carriers. In the 1980s, the number of vessels reached 100; 90% of the shipments were oil and oil products, chemicals and liquefied gas. On 29 August 1991, the state-owned company JSC Latvijas kuģniecība was established, which took over 87 vessels from the merchant fleet of the former USSR, mainly for the transport of oil and chemicals. P. Avotiņš became the head of the company. In 1996, Latvian Shipping was

privatised Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation wh ...

. In 1998, A. Kļaviņš became the company's President. On 5 June 2002, Latvijas kuģniecība became a

public joint-stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certifi ...

. On 26 June, Ventspils nafta acquired 49.94% of the shares of Latvijas kuģniecība in an auction on the Riga Stock Exchange. In 2004, three almost new tankers were purchased and 14 medium-sized tankers were ordered from Croatian and Korean shipyards. In 2007, four more medium-sized tankers were ordered from Korea. In 2008, Latvian shipping added 14 new vessels to its fleet. In 2004, the privatization of the company was completed, and Ventspils Nafta became the largest shareholder. In 2011, a new fleet of tankers was delivered from the Korean shipyard Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. Ltd. In 2016, Latvian shipping operated with a loss of 21.156 million euros. In June 2017, Latvian Shipping's subsidiary SIA LASCO Investment sold the Preses nams building to SIA PN Project, which is managed by the Lithuanian real estate and private equity company Lords LB Asset Management. In 2017, turnover of the company decreased by 9.1%, profit was 11.273 million euros. In February 2018, SIA LSC Shipmanagement, a subsidiary of Latvian Shipping Company, which performed technical supervision of

tankers Tanker may refer to: Transportation * Tanker, a tank crewman (US) * Tanker (ship), a ship designed to carry bulk liquids ** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk ** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanke ...

, was renamed SIA LSC. In May 2018, the subsidiary company of Latvian Shipping Company SIA LASCO Investment became the property of Ventspils nafta. On June 20, Vitol Netherlands B.V. became the owner of SIA LSC. In May 2018, the subsidiary company of Latvian Shipping Company SIA LASCO Investment became the property of Ventspils nafta. On June 20, Vitol Netherlands B.V. became the owner of SIA LSC. On 16 December 2019, Latvijas kuģniecība was merged into Ventspils nafta, which in turn was renamed Latvijas kuģniecība.

References

Shipping companies of Latvia Companies based in Riga Transport companies established in 1940 1940 establishments in Latvia Shipping companies of the Soviet Union {{Latvia-company-stub