Having grown up in European coastal trading, the blue-yellow-blue company flag has now been a presence on the world seas for almost 70 years. Many years, during which the company know-how has been expanding all the time. Thanks to this long-term experience, we are in the position to manage our fleet with the highest professionalism and efficiency. From the company’s headquarters in Hamburg, the shipping activities are now being run by the third generation. While preserving tradition, but also with an eye open for innovation, the activities of Oskar Wehr are always in keeping with the motto of the company founder:

“Experience is like a good ship: it brings you safely into port” (Oskar Wehr). Welcome on board, welcome to Oskar Wehr in Hamburg.

KNOW HOW SETS THE COURSE

The experience gathered over many years in chartering, operating, crewing, as well as in the technical and commercial management of ships is the foundation of a customer-oriented service well suited to the volatile markets of modern shipping.

Our spheres of activity are very varied. Along with our focus on container and dry bulk shipping, we have many years of experience in the areas of specialist shipping (Ro/Ro) and coastal shipping. Our choice of Hamburg as a location was reinforced with the introduction of the tonnage tax system. We can fall back on a wide breadth of experience as we have been active in operational management on land since the founding of our company 70 years ago.

The qualifications of the employees, at sea as well as in our offices in Hamburg and Singapore, are a crucial prerequisite for reliability and performance in every respect. As technical manager for third party vessels, as well as for our own fleet, we sail in safe waters in markets that show future potential.

FROM MOTOR SAILORS TO CAPESIZE BULKERS

The shipping company was founded in 1945 by Oskar Wehr who was born in Koblenz, over 500 kilometres away from Germany’s coast. The success story of the shipping company began with the acquisition of the motor sailer, ANNE, which was deployed in what were then the traditional sea routes of coastal shipping. Already in 1957 delivery was taken of the first newbuilding from the Sietas shipyard by the company, followed by further ships in the years after. In the middle of the 60s, Captain Oskar Wehr decided from then on to operate his fleet, which had now expanded to four ships, from “terra firma”. The newly-founded Oskar Wehr KG then managed the ships from its company headquarters in Hamburg-Altona.
With the JANNE WEHR (1) 1968 the shipping company took delivery of its first vessel – a semi container ship – able to load up to 63 TEU.
The first container ship newbuilding for the company was delivered in 1974. The JANNE WEHR (2) with its 280 TEU was then one of the modern ships in the feeder sector. Today she is still used as a singledecker on European routes. With the delivery of the Ro/Ro ships THOMAS WEHR and GABRIELE WEHR at the end of the 70s, the shipping company diversified its activities beyond coastal shipping.
Since 1977 the company’s competitive chartering activities have been operated under their own broker house. Special emphasis is put on the international procurement of charter contracts for container ships and bulk carriers in all market segments. We work very closely with a large number of internationally reputable liner companies and operators worldwide.

In the middle of the 90s the ship owner Jürgen Wehr adopted a fleet alignment programme for the new millennium and the next generation. So, at the beginning of 1996, delivery was taken of the SIGRID WEHR with 1150 TEU from the Polish shipyard Stocznia Szczecinska S.A., Stettin. Further new buildings were delivered from this yard. A total of nine container ships of type B170 with 1730 TEU were taken over until 2002. In addition eight container ships of 2500 TEU each were built in German shipyards. Six of them in Warnemünde and two at the Volkswerft Stralsund. These ships have been under operation for the shipping company since 2002. Together with two panamax container vessels, which were delivered in 2005 and 2006, the container vessel fleets now comprises of 13 units ranging from 1,700 to 5,100 TEU.

Adding to its steady mainstay of container shipping, the company took over the management of four Panamax bulk carriers with 65,000 tonnage capacity in 1999. This move into the dry bulk sector initiated a fleet diversification. These older bulkers were sold, but a new modern fleet was ordered and is presently flying the blue-yellow-blue company flag. The Oskar Wehr bulk fleet presently consists of 13 vessels. Seven supramax bulkers, one Dolphin 57 and six Mitsui built MES 56, as well as six capesize bulkers of 176,000 tdw all built at New Times shipyard and delivered into service between 2010 and 2012.

Fleet

Container

Our experience in the container segment dates back to late 1968, when we took over our first container ship. Since then Oskar Wehr has mainly focused on feeder size container ships in the range of 1,700 TEU to 2,500 TEU. One of the “workhorse” type B170 with 1,730 TEU is still under operation and serves classic feeder routes in the Asian markets.

DryBulk

Coal, ores and grain – the demand is increasing, especially in the booming markets from India to China. Our fleet is ready for that and is well positioned in this sector. With our new tonnage contracted from reputable new building yards in Japan and China, we have technical sound vessels in the “Cape” and “Supramax” segments. This enables us to provide to our customers a technical standard for economic operation and less fuel consumption. For us, part of business acumen means looking ahead to the markets of tomorrow.

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