TK50
November 10, 2014The Tai Chong Cheang Group (TCC Group) is pleased to announce the establishment of a joint venture with Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd (“K” Line) under the banner of “TK50” to celebrate the 50-year relationship between the two corporations, and to mark the beginning of the next 50 years of closer business collaboration. The joint venture is launched in Hong Kong on 28 October 2014 with the signing of the Shareholders Agreement and a contract for the construction of a 182,200 M.T. Capesize newbuilding by Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.
Commenting on the joint venture, “K” Line Representative Director, President & CEO Jiro Asakura said: “ ‘K’ Line’s long relationship with the TCC Group dates back to the 1960’s and has always been underpinned by three ‘ships’ – Friendship, Partnership and Relationship. The joint venture aims to pool the strengths and shared values of our two organizations to provide quality international bulk transport services for prime customers. It is our wish that the TK50 joint venture will be the platform, not just for cooperation in drybulk shipping, but will also expand over time to other strategic areas where the best practices and competitive advantages of TCC and ‘K’ Line would be shared and harnessed in close business partnership.”
TCC Group Chairman & CEO Kenneth Koo said: “We are grateful for ‘K’ Line’s suggestion of TK50. We also pay tribute to our late Chairmen K H Koo and K W Koo who had done so much during their lifetimes to raise our relationship with ‘K’ Line to a strategic level. We are excited by TK50 as a very major milestone in the history of the TCC Group, as we approach 2015 to celebrate our 60-year presence in Japan, and 2016 to celebrate the Centenary of TCC. In today’s increasingly fragmented and commoditized shipping industry, closer collaboration between traditional shipowners would be so important in guarding and continuously improving the demanding standards of international shipping with a united voice.”
About Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (“K” LINE)
Established: April, 1919
Business description: Marine/Land/Air transportation, Through transportation involving marine/land and air transportation, Harbor transportation, etc.
Location of Head Office: Iino Building, 1-1, Uchisaiwaicho 2-chome, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, Japan
President and CEO: Jiro Asakura
Website: http://www.kline.co.jp/en/
About TCC
TCC was founded in Shanghai in 1916 by Mr. CS Koo as Tai Chong Hsiang Company, a then renowned customs brokerage firm, and started baby steps into shipping in the 1920’s, when TCC owned and operated a fleet of passenger and general cargo vessels plying the coast of China and the Yangtze River. The shipping business eventually expanded its presence to Hong Kong, and sons KH Koo and KW Koo succeeded the business in 1983 with the establishment of Tai Chong Cheang Steamship Co. (H.K.) Limited in Hong Kong. Over the course of the following two decades, TCC had grown into one of the biggest independent capsize bulk carrier owners, and also commenced Aframax crude oil tanker operations in 1989 with the construction of its first Aframax newbuilding at Imabari Shipbuilding’s Koyo dockyard. Since the passing of KH Koo in 2005, TCC has been led by his son and third generation Group Chairman and CEO, Kenneth Koo. TCC currently owns and operates a fleet of 19 bulk carriers and crude oil tankers on water and on order totaling 3 million DWT. Since its establishment almost a century ago, TCC has never strayed from the core values instituted by Mr. C.S. Koo – Accountability, Credibility, Reliability and Trust. Guided by these core values, TCC adheres to shipowning as its core business, and to in-house ship management that reflects uncompromising standards of safety and technical management, as well as caring for all its staff, shipboard and shore-based, and customers, as “Family”. Upon this spirit of “Family”, TCC has been able to build up a unique business philosophy as a blue chip, boutique shipowner that stays “top-of-mind” with stakeholders. The management platform rests upon a foundation of strong governance, institutionalization, professionalism and transparency, that combines the best of private ownership and public-company principles and disciplines.