Our heritage
In 1952 Conoship International was founded as a central design and purchase office for a group of Northern Dutch shipyards. Today we are an independent company and our activities have expanded and we provide designs and services to shipyards and ship owners from all over the world. This year, 2022, marks our 70th Anniversary in the maritime industry.
Let us go back in time...
The exact date (or even year) of establishment is actually unclear; various documents mention different dates. In the Conoship Bulletin of October 1977 the year 1952 is considered to be the ‘year of establishment’. It reads as follows: “The oldest record we…
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Conoship InternationalOn 29th July 1955 the association received the Royal Approval of the Articles of Association with its initial name “Conos” (Combination Northern Shipbuilders). As this name not cleary indicate they were involved with ships, the name of the association was changed to…
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“…it would take ten years before the Conoship group won their first contract. On 1 June 1961 an order was placed for the account of the Pakistani Government on a buoy-laying vessel, which was built at the Gebr. Grol shipyard.” states the…
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Conoship InternationalIn the 1960s there was a large demand for supply ships and tugs, to support the growing offshore industry. The Dutch Smit-Lloyd became a major player in that market in 1964 with ships of its own design. The so-called supply ship, in…
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The organization is further formalized in 1965 by the establishment of the Cooperative Purchasing Association Coopship. “At the end of 1965 the decision was already taken to house all of Conoship’s departments in the Oosterhaven premises and to appoint Mr. Plantinga (…)…
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Conoship InternationalA painted full color artist impression of a singledeck coaster decorated the front page of our 1967 newsletter. This type of vessel became the Groninger ship par excellence from the early 1920s untill the mid-70s. The relatively small ships, with a loading…
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“The cooperation within Conoship also led to the members deciding to set up a joint workshop where shipbuilding steel could be centrally pre-finished. On April 13, 1973, Centraalstaal was established in Groningen. Here the construction drawings were made, after which all parts…
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Conoship InternationalIn the heyday of tradeshows Conoship had some impressive exhibition booths. A very memorable one is the Offshore Europe 77 exhibition in Edinburgh: “Conoship not only participated by means of a beautiful booth but drew extra attention by the – highly appreciated…
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On October 28, 1977, Conoship celebrated its silver jubilee. A symposium was held on this festive day during which the future of shipbuilding and shipping was discussed. The invited guests could also participate in an excursion to Centraalstaal and witness the opening…
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We were digging through the archives of Conoship International, when we found a rather compelling story. This anecdote gives use some interesting insight into the history of our company, and just how much times have changed. The story tells of our early…
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