Manchester Liners - Decline and Closure

Decline and Closure

Manchester Liners had been partly owned by Furness Withy from the beginning, and they became a subsidiary in 1970. Furness Withy was itself taken over in 1980 by the C. Y. Tung Group of Hong Kong. Robert B. Stoker retired in 1979 as Chairman of Manchester Liners after 47 years service with the company.

Severe competition following the building of excess container shipping capacity by many companies badly affected ML's trade and profitability. The company's vessels were by then smaller than average in the industry, leading to higher operating costs per unit of cargo carried. Their operations were further severely affected during the mid-1970s by both official and unofficial strikes by dock workers. The service to Canada ended in 1979, and by the early 1980s only five "Manchester" ships remained – the 30,000 ton container vessel Manchester Challenge and four 1,600–4,000 ton vessels: Manchester Crown, Manchester Trader, Manchester Faith and Manchester City. The line had by then ceased using the Port of Manchester, and the four smaller vessels were operating to the Mediterranean out of Ellesmere Port, 33 miles (53 km) closer to the sea on the lower reaches of the ship canal.

In 1981, ML jointly with the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company and the Dart Container Line, instituted a weekly containership service from Felixstowe, Suffolk, to Montreal. MLs contribution to the service was the large Manchester Challenge. The last of Manchester Liners' ships was sold in 1985, and in 1988 the services formerly operated by the company were taken over by the Orient Overseas Container Line, successor to the Tung Group.