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World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

A public reference property of Baalvion

Open data · every figure carries its source

World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

water transport

American President Lines

Headquarters: Singapore
Founded: 1848
Employees: 7,400

Official website

Photo: bertknot from scarborough, australia · CC BY-SA 2.0 · file

Ships in this registry

Counted from individual vessel records · Wikidata

Reported fleet size

—

No published figure available

Container capacity

—

Not a ranked container line

Gross tonnage on record

645,651

Summed over 6 ships reporting tonnage

In brief

What American President Lines is

Full article ↗

American President Lines, LLC (APL) is an American container shipping company that is a subsidiary of French shipping company CMA CGM. It operates an all-container ship fleet, including eleven U.S. flagged container vessels.
In 1938, the U.S. government took over the management of the Dollar Steamship Co., which was in financial difficulties and transferred their assets to the newly formed American President Lines. In 1997, Singaporean shipping company Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) acquired APL, eventually moving APL's headquarters to Singapore. In 2016, CMA CGM acquired NOL, parent company of APL.

Origin

Who founded it

American President Lines was founded in 1848 by one named founder on record. Portraits are shown only where a freely licensed photograph exists and its photographer is known.

Founder

William Henry Aspinwall

1807–1875

American businessman (1807-1875)

Photo: Daniel Huntington · Public domain · file

Corporate profile

Identity and registration

Legal name: —
Industry: water transport
Legal form: —
Country of registration: Singapore
Headquarters: Singapore
Formed in: —
Founded: 1848
Dissolved: —
Employees: 7,400
Head office coordinates: 1.3000, 103.8000

Ships on record here: 6
Vessel types operated: 1
Flag states used: 2
Average vessel age: 21.7 years
Oldest vessel on record: 1988
Newest vessel on record: 2014
Largest vessel by tonnage: 169,423
Average tonnage: 107,609
Market share: —
Parent company: —
Alliance: —
Record source: wikidata
Last refreshed: 2026-09-05

Fleet on record

What this company sails

Composition of the 6 vessels this registry attributes to American President Lines. Bars are true proportions of that set, not of the company's full fleet.

By vessel type

Container ship6

By flag state

Singapore4

Sierra Leone2

By shipbuilder

Hanwha Ocean2

Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft2

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries1

HD Hyundai Samho1

Delivery history

10-year fleet record

Ships delivered in each of the last 10 years, counted from the recorded build year of vessels attributed to this company, with the running total of its fleet on record. No deliveries fall inside this window — this company’s vessels on record were all built earlier.

Year	Gross tonnage added	Fleet on record
2017	—	6
2018	—	6
2019	—	6
2020	—	6
2021	—	6
2022	—	6
2023	—	6
2024	—	6
2025	—	6
2026	—	6

Vessel records

Ships on record

6 vessels

Ship	IMO	Type	Flag	Built	Gross tonnage	Deadweight	Length	Builder
«MOL Quest»	9631967	Container ship	Singapore	2013	169,423	—	397.6 m	HD Hyundai Samho
«APL Barcelona»	9462043	Container ship	Singapore	2012	128,929	131,197	347.4 m	Hanwha Ocean
«APL Gwangyang»	9461879	Container ship	Singapore	2011	113,735	123,159	349.3 m	HD Hyundai Heavy Industries
IMO 9632208	9632208	Container ship	Singapore	2014	109,712	—	328.2 m	Hanwha Ocean
President Kennedy	8616295	Container ship	Sierra Leone	1988	61,926	53,615	275.0 m	Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft
President Truman	8616283	Container ship	Sierra Leone	1988	61,926	53,613	275.0 m	Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft

Ships in registry counts individual vessel records attributed to the company here. Reported fleet is the company’s published total. They measure different things and are shown separately on purpose.

In context

How American President Lines compares

Counts over companies and vessels actually held in this directory — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.

With 6 vessels attributed to it here, American President Lines is the 148th largest of the 965 operators in this directory that hold at least one ship on record, against a median of 2 across that group. That is a count of individually identified hulls, not the company’s published fleet size — the two are different measurements and both are shown above where available.

Singapore is the country of registration for 6 commercial operators in this directory, among which American President Lines ranks 1st by ships on record. Between them those companies hold 9 vessels here. See every operator registered in Singapore.

Founded in 1848, American President Lines is 178 years old. This directory holds 23 operators founded within five years either side of that date, whose median fleet on record is 2 ships. The median founding year across all commercial operators here is 1966, and the oldest on record dates to 1514.

Provenance

Where this page comes from

Company and vessel recordsWikidata item Q466438, released under CC0. Counted figures on this page are counts over those records.

Written summaryQuoted from American President Lines on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Published fleet figuresNo published fleet figure is available for this company.