OUR HISTORY

UCT was conceived in 1986 by two leading Hamburg ship owners, Christian F. Ahrenkiel and Knöhr & Burchard (K&B) to optimize the marketing and operations of their fleets of chemical tankers. Even in these early days from 1987 UCT was trading young ships which were sophisticated for their day, and concentrating heavily on business between the Mediterranean and North Seas.

As time progressed, K&B moved away from traditional ship owning, entrusting the technical management of their ships to Columbia Shipmanagement (CSM) as early as 1991. As CSM‘s expertise with chemical tankers grew and flourished, UCT was able to establish itself as the leading operator in its chosen trading area. When in 1995 K&B decided to move into other business areas, CSM was happy to purchase the chemical tankers and to become a full member of the UCT Pool and shareholder in the company.

The second half of the 1990s saw UCT in partnership with Italian ship owners. The enlarged fleet offered opportunities greatly to expand the business portfolio. However, this became a burden when the bitter downturn in the market at the end of the decade stressed the joint-venture beyond breaking point and it was discontinued in 2000.

Ongoing difficulties arising from the severity of the market conditions saw a divergence in emphasis between the partners in UCT itself, culminating in the withdrawal of the Ahrenkiel ships from the UCT Pool at the end of 2003. A new pooling arrangement with Seatrans of Bergen was then entered into, ensuring continuity and filling the gap. Subsequent organisational problems finally proved insurmountable and the venture was ended in 2007.

Since January 2008 UCT is a fully independent operator of modern chemical tankers trading mainly between the North and Mediterranean Seas. The UCT fleet has been completely renewed. Larger, more efficient ships were designed and built especially for UCT. CSM‘s in-house experts supervised the building of these vessels in carefully selected shipyards. As the new vessels were introduced, the last of the older ships was phased out, leaving UCT today with the youngest fleet of its kind in Europe. Considering this age profile and the first class vetting record of CSM, the ships in the UCT fleet are a very attractive option for any quality-conscious customer.

Throughout more than twenty years of trading UCT has remained a stable and dependable partner for its customers, offering service, reliability and continuity through the most turbulent times. It is this continuity, together with the many years of chemical shipping expertise of the team and the reliability of its service which make UCT the partner of choice for chemical shipping.