1919–1944 "K" Line traces its origin to
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which itself was born in 1878, when founder and entrepreneur
Kawasaki Shōzō established Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipyard in Tokyo, Japan, which, eighteen years later, in 1896, was incorporated as Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Ltd. The shipping activities were developed when Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Ltd. (predecessor of
Kawasaki Heavy Industries)'s President
Kojiro Matsukata, decided to develop shipping services so as to provide business to Kawasaki Dockyard and to serve Japan's national industrial and trade interests. To do so, he placed Kawasaki Kisen,
Kawasaki Zosen and under joint management to build a stronger fleet of 40 to 50 ships serving the Atlantic, North and South America, Africa and the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. The three firms' initials were combined to form the moniker "K Line" in 1921. K Line founder,
Kojiro Matsukata, was also known as an art collector. The
National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo's
Ueno Park was established around the core of Matsukata's private collection. The Tokyo National Museum houses his extensive collection of
Ukiyo-eprints. In 1926, according to Lloyds, the newly established "K" Line reached the rank of 13th in the world, behind compatriots
NYK (9th) but ahead of
O.S.K. (14th). By the end of World War II, Kawasaki Kisen had lost 56 vessels. 12 survived. Prior to World War II, the holding company
Kawasaki Heavy Industries was part of the Kobe Kawasaki zaibatsu, which included Kawasaki Steel and Kawasaki Kisen. After the war, KHI became part of the DKB Group (keiretsu).
1945–1961 During that vital recovery period, "K" Line steadily returned to the building and operation of ships, reestablished bases of operation around the world, increased earnings and took other steps to restore corporate strength and vibrancy of the company.
1962–1967 After the merger with Iino Kisen, "K" Line was newly capitalized at ¥9 billion and controlled a fleet of 104 ships, 55 of which were also owned by "K" Line. The merger gave "K" Line a solid foundation to advance dynamically into the future both as one of the world's largest shipping lines in terms of fleet size and as a well-balanced, integrated organization.
1971 K Line opens
International Transportation Service, a
container terminal company in the
Port of Long Beach. The Car Carrier transport division was inaugurated with the launch of the new
roll-on/roll-off (RORO) vessel
Toyota Maru No. 10. K-Line would thereafter enlarge the fleet up to 70
car carrier vessels. All owned RORO vessels started to include in the first part of their names the word "highway" (opposite to its container fleet's vessels that include the word "bridge" into their names), to symbolize a link in between Japan and the rest of the world served by sea.
2003 KESS - K Line Europe Short Sea was inaugurated in July 2003 in
Germany, as a dedicated feeder operator in Europe specialized in brand new cars shipping in between European, Scandinavian, Baltic and Mediterranean ports. The company tonnage is composed of 11 RORO ships. , June 2007
2007 harbour
K Line Offshore AS was founded in Arendal, Norway in October 2007 as a subsidiary of K Line to provide offshore support services to oil and gas fields. They have commissioned new ships suitable for oil and gas fields in ultra-deep water, harsh environments and/or remote areas. In September 2007, Shuichiro Maeda, K-Line president, said the company will build ten cargo ships to be manned by an all-Filipino officers and crew. The vessels are expected to be finished by 2010. They employed 7,000 Filipinos in the next four years (3,330 officers and 3,600 ratings or crew). K-Line built the K-Line Maritime Academy-Philippines, operational in February 2008 and intends to train at least 10,000 seafarers a year. in
Wuhan 2017 In 2017, K Line,
Nippon Yusen (NYK) and
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) announced that they would merge and jointly operate their global container shipping services as
Ocean Network Express (ONE), in order to better compete against other global container shipping groups. ONE would merge all container shipping services of the three companies, as well as their port terminal operating subsidiaries in various countries, except in Japan, while keeping their other shipping services separate. ONE began operations in April 2018. with the company headquarters in
Tokyo, Japan, a business operation headquarters in
Singapore and regional headquarters in:
London,
United Kingdom;
Richmond, Virginia; and
São Paulo,
Brazil.
2018 On 23 July,
KESS car carrier ran hard aground at full speed in the
Tjust archipelago near
Loftahammar, Sweden, causing an
oil spill. By his own account, the captain had ordered a course close to land, far from established shipping lanes, in order to gain mobile phone reception. The ship's satellite communication system and
black box were inoperable when departing
Cuxhaven for
Södertälje, and alarm systems had been disabled. The
Swedish Coast Guard recovered approximately of oil by 30 July, but thousands of litres of oil washed up on the coast. An estimated of oil were spilled. The ship was towed to Oskarshamn, where its cargo of 1,325 vehicles were offloaded. The
chief mate was taken into custody and accepted a fine for intoxication and recklessness in maritime traffic. His
blood alcohol content by mass at the time of the accident was estimated at 1.15
permille, based on samples taken after the incident. The oil spill is also being investigated as an
environmental crime.
2019 On 15 June 2019, the car carrier caught fire while sailing in between the ports of
Singapore and
Batangas. The
Philippine Coast Guard was alerted, and a mission to rescue the 25 members of the crew was undertaken by another car carrier sailing in proximity. The ship had to be abandoned, and later towed to dry dock. The reason why the fire broke out is unknown but possibly related to the cargo on board. On 2 August 2019, K-Line was convicted and fined AUD34.5 million for criminal cartel conduct by the Australian Federal Court. The cartel, which was in place from 1997, had fixed prices for the transport of vehicles into Australia. The other cartel participant, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), was also convicted and fined in 2017.
2023 Around midnight on 26 July 2023, a fire broke out on the car carrier operated by K Line. The ship, which came from the port of Bremerhaven, Germany, was on its way to the
Suez Canal and, according to the
Dutch Coast Guard, was around north of the Dutch
Wadden Sea island of
Ameland at that time. The ship had 3,783 vehicles on board, including 498 electric cars. The cause of the fire is unknown, according to the Dutch Coast Guard; Media reports that an electric car had started the fire. During the extinguishing work on board, one crew member died and 16 were injured. The Dutch Coast Guard rescued the remaining 22 members of the crew. The extinguishing work was difficult because the bow is high. An
environmental disaster was feared if the ship would have sunk. After the fire had burned out,
Fremantle Highway was towed into
Eemshaven, Groningen (Netherlands) on 3 August. == Fleet ==