History

When Steinweg was started by Constantin Steinweg in 1847, he probably didn’t know that it would become a market leading global partner to the commodities trade.  Today, Steinweg employs 5500 people across more than 50 countries, providing storage, handling, forwarding, chartering and other logistics services throughout the world, helping its customers reach new markets, grow their businesses and in turn, fuel the growth of C. Steinweg.

Rotterdam has been the head office of C. Steinweg since the company was founded in 1847 as a shipping agent. In 1895, the company created Handelsveem BV to offer warehousing services. The resulting company C. Steinweg – Handelsveem BV subsequently expanded into stevedoring and other logistics services. Since then, the company has continued to expand across the globe.

Expansion in South America
From 1950s onwards, we grew our network of European offices. In the 1980s, we became active in South America and today the company has offices in Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico. Over the years, C. Steinweg Brazil has gained an excellent reputation as preferred broker for many major companies in the region, participating in feasibility studies for large mining and smelting projects. Close contacts with ship owners and shipping lines have also resulted in frequent chartering or shipping of various commodities.

Asian operations
Since setting up a regional head office Singapore in 1984, we have built an ever-expanding network with offices and warehouses in Hong Kong, Korea, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia. Our first office in China was opened in 1991, and we have continued to expand there too, providing logistics services to the commodity trade.

North American activities
In 1990, we became active in the USA, establishing a regional office in Baltimore to coordinate all our operations in North America including LME-approved warehouses.

Middle East regions
In the 1990s, we also opened offices in Dubai. From there we expanded further into the Middle East (Oman). With important suppliers and consumers of raw materials located in India and Africa, Dubai is a major transit port for destinations throughout the Middle East, Far East and Africa as well as an LME and DMCC-approved location.

Further expansion
The company has expanded further since 1990s, most importantly by acquiring Bridge Shipping (Pty) Ltd. with its unique footprint of offices and warehouses in Southern Africa. We have also opened new offices in Poland, Romania and Turkey. In addition, we have acquired Dutch companies like DMT Moerdijk, Oosterom and Hollandsveem BV and subsequently incorporated them into our organisation.

Throughout its history, C. Steinweg has been characterised by:

Geographic growth: from offices in Rotterdam to a global organisation.

A broad range of commodities handled: from metals and soft commodities to chemicals, ferro-alloys, general cargo and project cargo.

High-quality services: from warehousing, forwarding and stevedoring to value-added services such as crushing, screening, packing and blending.

 

We look forward to further growth and development together with our customers.