The founder
Klaus Eilbrecht was born on 30.05.1956 in Duisburg/Germany. After hehad finished school in 1974 he got employed as a decks boy by DeutscheDampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft “Hansa” AG in Bremen where he worked until1981. Following his completed education at navigation school in Leer heworked for three years as a 2nd Officer for a shipping company inHamburg. In 1984 he acquired his deep sea license. In 1991 CaptainKlaus Eilbrecht became a pilot for the river Ems and in the year 1996also for the port of Emden.

The beginning
Thehistory of Reederei Eilbrecht GmbH & Co. KG in fact begins with thefoundation of a shipping company named “Eilbrecht & Janssen KG” in1985. This company was based in Leer, partners and founders were KlausEilbrecht and Folkmar Janssen. ‘Eilbrecht & Janssen KG’ bought thenewbuilt general cargo vessel M/V “Jan-Willem” whichwas put into service in May 1986. The vessel was commanded by MrEilbrecht himself for the first five years. The vessel mainlytransported steel products of every kind, grain, fertilizers and heavylift within the area between Archangelsk/Russia and Northern Africa.

Reederei Eilbrecht
In 1990 Folkmar Janssen resigned from the company and in 1991 thecompany relocated it’s office from Leer to Emden. There Klaus Eilbrechtchanged the company’s name into ’Reederei Eilbrecht GmbH & Co. KG’and took over the shipping operations for M/V „Jan-Willem“.  In thisyear the 1984 built second hand vessel “Elke” was bought. Only one year later, in 1992, the general cargo vessel “Heike” became part of the Eilbrecht fleet. Like already M/V “Jan-Willem”before, both “Heike” and “Elke” transported their cargo mainly withinEuropean waters.

In 1997 Reederei Eilbrecht GmbH & Co. KG took over M/V „Westerems“, a general cargo vessel with a dead weight of 2.350 t.

Three years later, in 2000, M/V “Tomke” was addedto the fleet. That newbuilt vessel had a dead weight of 3.200 t, wastherewith larger than it’s predecessor. Furthermore “Tomke” hasultimate german iceclass E3. 

This ship offered the biggest capacity within the Eilbrecht fleet until then.

Up to the year 2003, when the newbuildings “Caribbean Sina” and “Rio Para” were put into service. These container vessels, built by QingshanShipyard in China, had a dead weight of each 5.530 t. With these shipsthe trading area of Reederei Eilbrecht GmbH & Co. KG enlargedheavily. While “Caribbean Sina” shuttled between China and Japan, it’ssister ship “Rio Para” traded the Caribbean.

In 2006 the fleet again grew by one new entrant: M/V “Osterems”,a 1999 built second hand general cargo vessel with a deadweight ofnearly 3.800 t was taken over. This ship has iceclass 1 A, the highestavailable Finnish iceclass. Today it is mainly employed with timbertransport.

At the beginning of 2007 MV “Ems” was taken over. This second handgeneral cargo vessel was launched in 2005 and with it’s deadweight ofmore than 6.000 t it is momentarily the largest vessel of the Eilbrechtfleet.

Still today the general cargo vessels basically travel Europeanwaters. Within the scope of firm charter party contracts the containervessels sail Central America and the Caribbean as well as China andJapan, where they execute circular voyages.

Business objectives
Economic aim of Reederei Eilbrecht GmbH & Co. KG is to advance itsmarket position and to safeguard the existence of the company in thelong run. We go for being competitive to be able to offer market drivenservices.