acquired by the cma cgm group successor cma cgm group founded 1867 defunct march 1 2016 2016 03 01 area served worldwide products shipping cargo freight distribution website http www.delmas.com delmas shipping based in le havre france was a containerized freight and ro ro shipping company mainly carrying trade between western europe and africa . it was the largest cargo carrier between european and african ports and europe s oldest extant shipping line . citation needed delmas is wholly owned by the cma cgm group having been acquired from the bollor group for 470 million in 2005 . the delmas brand was fully integrated into cma cgm in march 2016 . the company operated a fleet of 49 vessels with a collective capacity of 63 000 twenty foot equivalent units teu 1 on 15 routes between europe africa and the indian ocean . a delmas container ship unloading at the zanzibar port in tanzania history edit delmas freres was founded in 1867 to transport coal and raw materials from the french port of la rochelle . in 1910 the company was renamed delmas vieljeux after its president joint owner and mayor of la rochelle leonce vieljeux . 2 the first delmas shipyard opened in 1922 and international shipping began in 1925 with imports of mahogany from the african state of gabon for use in boxes for storage of butter and cheese . 2 after world war ii the company relocated to le havre and began to specialise in africa european trade . it was acquired by the bollor group in a hostile takeover in 1996 but a series of restructures led to a loss of market share and the sacking of 140 staff . 3 in september 2005 the company was sold to cma cgm for 470 million . the sale was supported by the delmas workforce after cma cgm agreed to a package including no forced redundancies and the retention of the le havre offices and delmas branding . 4 however the cma cgm group announced in march 2016 that it will integrate the delmas brand with its own in order to streamline service and unify all of its maritime activities to and from africa under a single brand . 5 in february 2010 delmas was put in the spotlight for its involvement in the shipment of illegally logged rainforest wood from madagascar . 6 external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to delmas shipping company . delmas official website references edit delmas . cma cgm group marseille . 2006 . retrieved 2008 02 15 . a b delmas shipping company france . flags of the world . july 2004 . retrieved 2008 02 15 . cma cgm delmas bid gets standard & poor s approval . ministry of investment industry technology and information government of malta . september 2005 . archived from the original on december 28 2005 . retrieved 2008 02 15 . cma cgm delmas deal to be closed pdf . maritime digital archive . september 2005 . retrieved 2008 02 15 . dead link http www.cma cgm.com the group markets africa french company prepares to ship illegally logged rainforest wood from madagascar . wildmadagascar.org . february 2010 . retrieved 2010 02 26 . this french corporation or company article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title delmas shipping company & oldid 738734732 categories shipping companies of francecontainer shipping companiesfrench company stubshidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from october 2010pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from february 2008commons category without a link on wikidataall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran aisnederlands edit links this page was last modified on 10 september 2016 at 19 06 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view