Initiated by the Gothenburg shipowners Justus A Waller and Wilhelm R Lundgren, Rederi AB Concordia was formed and based in Gothenburg. The share capital was 17,400 Swedish crowns and 19 June Justus A Waller and Carl Hallberg were elected board members and Mr Waller was elected Managing Director. Mr C A Waller was elected deputy member of the board. The purpose of the company was to provide passenger- and freight transporting by steamsboats and other type of vessels. The company’s first ships were the steamers Apollo and Juno, already owned by Mr Waller. The Apollo sank during her first year in the company.

A new built steamer, the Faunus, was delivered from an English shipyard and five years later the fleet had another two steamers, the Dodona and the Ruvima, both bought from an English owner.

Mr W R Lundgren left the company and formed Rederi AB Nike, wherefrom Rederi AB Transatlantic later was developed.

Concordia took the new built steamboats the Aloma and the Sita from Lödöse Varf

In the 1910’s many ships sank. The Dodona ran aground and was a wreck. The Ruvima was blown up by a mine and the year after that happened to the Faunus too. During 1914 and 1915 the Lödöse Varf delivered the steamers Verna and the Sirona.

The company bought its last steamer, the three year old the Polana.

Per Waller, son of Justus Waller, was appointed managing director of the company.

The company’s main activities had been concentrated to shipping in the North Se and in the Baltic Sea. During the 1920’s the company abandoned steam shipping and started to invest in tanker shipping. The shipyard Götaverken delivered the 9,070 dwt tanker Abadan to the company.

During the 1930’s the last steam ships were sold off, the Polana and the Cerna. Thereafter the company only had the tanker Abadan left.

At the beginning of the second world war the company ordered a larger tanker at the shipyard Götaverken. She was named Juno and loaded 126,000 dwt. She was ready at the shipyard in 1942 but not delivered until the war was over. The Abadan was sold and thereafter the company only had one vessel.

The shipyard Götaverken delivered the tanker Belonna. She was a modernized sister vessel to the Juno.

In November the managing director D Per Waller died and Torsten Petterson, who had been member of the board since 1927, was appointed managing director. During the company’s first 65 years there had only been two managing directors.

Bertil Magnussson was appointed the new managing director.

The tanker Juno was sold to a Greek owner while the Belonna was transferred to a Dutch subsidiary.

As replacement two coastal tankers at 1,060 dwt were ordered and delivered, they were named the Polana and the Sirona. The latter was sold already the following year to a Danish shipowner.

In January the Stena Group bought Concordia and thus began a new phase. Already a couple of months later the Polana was sold and Concordia now had no own vessels.

The passenger ship Afrodite was transferred to Rederi AB Concordia and an old dream was fulfilled.  The corporate governance stated from the very start that the company should be engaged in passenger service between Sweden and abroad.

Two supply ships were ordered from Norway and the company now was engaged in the offshore business.

A series of 11 RoRo-vessels were order from a South Korean shipyard.

Four sophisticated diving vessels were ordered from Öresundsvarvet.

Concordia Maritime was formed and listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. One third of the shares was sold to the public.

The world´s fifth and sixth largest ships Stena King and Stena Queen, 458,000 dwt each, were purchased and added to the fleet, now totalling 3.5 million dwt.

Universe Tankships (Daniel K Ludwig) VLCC fleet of 6 vessels was purchased at MUSD 200 enbloc with long term charters to Messrs Texaco.

The first MAX class tanker was ordered. Hyundai Heavy Industries was contracted to build two VLCCs of the new revolutionary V-MAX design of 313,000 dwt each.

The Stena V-MAXs Stena Vision and Stena Victory were delivered and entered long-term charters to Sunoco, Philadelphia.

Six 65,200-dwt product tankers of Stena P-MAX design are ordered from Brodosplit Shipyard in Croatia.

The last two 1970s built Concordia Class VLCCs were sold to SBM for offshore conversion after 30 years of flawless operation.

New order of two ice-class 1A Panamax tankers, on 50/50 basis with Fortum, Finland, against 10 years time charter to Fortum.

Floated Arlington Tankers on the New York Stock Exchange and sold both V-MAXs with 5-8 years T/C back.

The Stena P-MAX Stena Paris were delivered and entered long-term charter to the french oil company TOTAL.

Two additional P-MAX tankers of dwt 65,200 are ordered from Brodosplit Shipyard in Croatia.

Four new vessels were delivered in 2007. Stena Poseidon and Palva, both Panamaxes, and Stena President and Stena Perros, both P-MAXs. All four vessels have entered long-term charters.

Concordia Maritime’s product tanker Stena Progress was named at Brodosplit Shipyard in Split. Read more here.