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1965.03.01.De la Nouvelle Compagnie havraise péninsulaire de navigation.Historique en anglais
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History of the Nouvelle Compagnie havraise péninsulaire de navigation
The Nouvelle Compagnie havraise péninsulaire has been established in 1930 but the exact origin dates book to 1882.
At that time has been constituted the Compagnie havraise péninsulaire de navigation à vapeur which owned a fleet of 7 small vessels of 500/1.800 tons dw capacity.
These vessels ran a service from northern ports of France to Spain and Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, which explains the word “Péninsulaire” in the name of the company.
Little by little the line has extended and CHP vessels called at Marseilles and Algerian ports and as soon as 1885 they could be seen in the Persian Gulf, China sea, Indian Ocean and Mozambique channel.
Sailings from Le Havre to Mauritius and Reunion were effected every 45 days.
At the same time the dw capacity of vessels also increased to 4.000 and then 5.800 tons dw.
At the end of last century the CHP centred its efforts to the Indian Ocean Service and immediately held there a predominant position. Since then, the main activity of the CHP, which became NCHP in 1934, has been to operate a regular service from Europe and North Africa to Madagascar, Reunion, Comoro Is., and Mauritius.
This activity however was not to remain exclusive and in 1955 the NCHP opened a new regular service of Ocean-vessels to the Persian Gulf and in 1963, in the Indian Ocean area, a coasters transversal service from Mascarene Is. to East and South Africa.
Lastly, at the beginning of 1964, it has been considered advisable to strengthen the Red Sea service which has been allocated two specialized modern-designed vessels of 5.000 tdw capacity particularly well fitted for this traffic.
While the services were extending, the fleet increased as well. Having lost almost the whole of its fleet during last world war the first aim of the NCHP has been to reconstitute its fleet and later on, to progressively replace older vessels by modern freighters.
In this connection, several series of vessels have been built and more and more the new vessels have been equipped with the most recent technical improvement and commercially fitted to meet all the requirements of their respective services.
The 1st January 1965 the NCHP was owning 18 ocean-vessels of 6 years average age, with a total dw capacity of 187.101 tons and 4 coasters of 7 years average age with a total dw capacity of 9.708 tons. These latter vessels have been bareboat chartered to the NCHP’s offshoot the Compagnie malgache de navigation.
The CMN has its own vessel, a coaster of 2.400 tdw capacity, which raises to 5 the number of vessels, all flying the Malagasy flag, managed by this company and which are operating coastal transports between Malagasy open roads and ports and also ensure a regular service to Madagascar nearby countries in the Indian Ocean.
The NCHP also participates in the expansion of shipping business at Madagascar through the activity of another branch the Société auxiliaire maritime de Madagascar (AUXIMAD) which purposes are to consign vessels, to forward import and export cargoes and to undertake insurance operations.
AUXIMAD has recently extended the sphere of its activity in operating a small vessel which ensures a coastal service between ports and roads of Madagascar western coast.
Furthermore the NCHP is an important shareholder in the Société malgache de transports maritimes (SMTM).