Private company

Odense Steel Shipyard

Danish shipbuilding company

Odense Steel Shipyard (Danish: Odense Staalskibsværft) was a Danish shipyard company located in Odense. It was best known for building container ships for its parent group, A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, including the Mærsk E class in 2006 which at the time were the biggest container ships in the world. The 2008 financial crisis led to Maersk announcing its closure in 2009 and the last new ship was delivered in January 2012.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1917Founded1
  • Industryshipbuilding1
  • HeadquartersMunkebo1
  • Legal formaktieselskab1

Odense Steel Shipyard (Danish: Odense Staalskibsværft) was a Danish shipyard company located in Odense. It was best known for building container ships for its parent group, A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, including the Mærsk E class in 2006 which at the time were the biggest container ships in the world. The 2008 financial crisis led to Maersk announcing its closure in 2009 and the last new ship was delivered in January 2012.2

Corporate structure

Odense Steel Shipyard is part of a group headed by A.P. Møller Holding. 87 entities, 23 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • A.P. Møller Holding København K, Denmark
    • Maersk 41.51% · Kobenhavn K, Denmark
      • Maersk A/S 100% · Copenhagen, Denmark
        • Frey A/S Subsidiary · Åbyhøj, Denmark
      • Maersk Drilling Copenhagen, Denmark
      • Odense Steel Shipyard Munkebo
      • Svitzer Copenhagen K, Denmark
      • Aliança Navegação e Logística Subsidiary · 100% · Sao Paulo, Brazil
      • Farrell Lines Subsidiary · 100%
      • Safmarine Subsidiary · 100% · Antwerpen
      • Suez Canal Container Terminal Subsidiary · 55% · Port Said
      • Hamburg Süd Subsidiary · Hamburg
      • Maersk Air Subsidiary · Dragør Municipality
      • Maersk Air UK Subsidiary · Birmingham Airport
      • Port Pipavav Subsidiary
      • Star Air (Denmark) Subsidiary · Copenhagen Airport
      • Höegh Autoliners Stake · 38.75% · Oslo, Norway
      • Dansk Undergrunds Consortium Stake · 31.2%
      • Salling Group Stake · 19% · Brabrand, Denmark
        • Salling Group Captiveforsikringsselskab A/S Subsidiary · Brabrand, Denmark
        • Salling Group Ejendomme A/S Subsidiary · Brabrand, Denmark
      • MAERSK CONTAINER INDUSTRY A/S Subsidiary · 100% · Tinglev, Denmark
      • Poti Sea Port Subsidiary · 100% · Poti, Georgia
      • APM Terminals Mauritius Limited Subsidiary · The Hague, Netherlands
      • APM Terminals Tangier SA Subsidiary · Ksar es-Seghir, Morocco
      • BRASIL TERMINAL PORTUARIO S.A. Subsidiary · Copenhagen, Denmark
      • Damco Global Logistics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd (丹马士环球物流(上海)有限公司) Subsidiary · Copenhagen, Denmark
      • Hamburg Sudamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft A/S & Co KG Subsidiary · Hamburg, Germany
      • Maersk (China) Shipping Company Ltd. Subsidiary · Copenhagen, Denmark
      • MAERSK BRASIL (BRASMAR) LTDA. Subsidiary · Copenhagen, Denmark
      • and 38 more
    • APM Terminals The Hague, Netherlands
      • RIJEKA GATEWAY d.o.o. Subsidiary · 100% · Rijeka, Croatia
      • APM Terminals Algeciras SA Subsidiary · Madrid, Spain
      • APM Terminals Argentina SA Subsidiary · Buenos Aires, Argentina
      • APM TERMINALS CALLAO SOCIEDAD ANONIMA Subsidiary · The Hague, Netherlands
      • APM Terminals Gothenburg AB Subsidiary · Goteborg, Sweden
      • APM Terminals Itajai S.A. Subsidiary · Copenhagen, Denmark
      • APM TERMINALS LAZARO CARDENAS SA DE CV Subsidiary · Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico
      • APM Terminals Pecem Operacoes Portuarias Ltda Subsidiary · Copenhagen, Denmark
    • Maersk Tankers Copenhagen, Denmark
    • APMH INVEST A/S Subsidiary · 100% · København K, Denmark
      • APMH Invest XI ApS Subsidiary · 213800% · København, Denmark
      • APMH GE P/S Subsidiary · 99% · København, Denmark
      • A.P. Møller Maritime ApS Subsidiary · København, Denmark
        • APMH Invest V ApS Subsidiary · København K, Denmark
    • APMH Invest Subsidiary · Copenhagen Municipality, Denmark
    • Bangkok Marine Co., Ltd. (บริษัท บางกอก มารีน จำกัด) Subsidiary · Copenhagen, Denmark
    • Maersk Trade Finance A/S Subsidiary · Koebenhavn K, Denmark

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

The first yard was opened in 1918–1919 by the A.P. Møller company. A new yard with bigger and better facilities was constructed 1957–1959 on a new site located in Munkebo a few kilometres outside Odense proper. Odense Steel Shipyard was the largest yard within the Odense Steel Shipyard Group, which also consisted of two yards and an engineering company, all situated in the Baltic. The yard was known for designing and building innovative vessels that applied the newest technology in design and equipment.

Since 1996 the Yard built some of the world's largest container ships; including the Mærsk E-class with a nominal capacity of 15,550 TEU (originally declared as 11,000 TEU), the highest equivalent number of any vessel as of today. However, Maersk chose Daewoo to build its latest and largest design, the Triple E class with a nominal capacity of 18,000 TEU, as the Asian shipyard was more competitive.

The original shipyard remained in operation until 1966, when all operations were transferred to the new site. Unlike the modern shipyard, the old yard produced civilian and merchant vessels only. Its first completed ship was cargo steamship Robert Mærsk, completed in 1920. Its last production was Yard No. 177, the bulk carrier Laura Mærsk.

The new Odense Steel Shipyard (the "Lindø" Yard)

The new shipyard originally had two building docks, No. I and II (300 × 45 × 7.5 metres each), allowing the construction of tankers of up to 100,000 tonnes deadweight (DWT). The yard was enlarged in 1967 to include a new very large building dock, No. III (415 × 90 metres), and an 800-ton, 95-metre tall, 148.5-metre span gantry crane, allowing the construction of tankers in the VLCC and ULCC class. The largest construction planned on the yard was two 500,000 DWT tankers, but this order was later cancelled. From the 1960s until 1977, the yard only constructed oil tankers (no larger than 330,000 DWT) as well as bulk carriers. The first RO-RO ship was built in 1979, and the first container ship in 1980. In December 1992, the yard completed the world's first 300,000 DWT double-hull tanker. In January 1996 they delivered its first Post-Panamax container ship. On 3 December 1999 the gantry crane collapsed after a hurricane in the building dock and damaged the ship No.170 Cornelius Mærsk, which was repaired thereafter and delivered two months later. MAN Takraf of Leipzig, Germany, delivered a new 1,000 ton, 110-metre tall gantry crane in April 2001.

The collapse in world shipping during the Great Recession led Maersk to announce in January 2009 that Odense would concentrate on smaller ships but in May 2009 they announced that they would be closing the yard altogether and putting Baltija Shipbuilding Yard in Lithuania up for sale. The last newbuild from Lindø was No.714 Niels Juel, a frigate for the Royal Danish Navy, which was delivered in January 2012.

From Wikipedia’s article on Odense Steel Shipyard, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

  • cargo ship

Listed on Wikidata.1

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 2012Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1917Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3