The company entered the tanker market in the mid-1960s when a second-hand tanker, with a British Petroleum charter attached, was purchased. Our first Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) was ordered in 1969. In 1974 the hundredth newbuilding contract was placed and by 1979 the fleet numbered more than 200 vessels and had become the largest independently-owned bulk shipping fleet in the world with a total tonnage of 20.5 million deadweight tonnes.

In the 1980s, the business environment for shipping changed. Many ship owners continued to believe that the slump was temporary; World-Wide, meanwhile, faced this reality in a way that very few others were prepared to do and over a period of three years the fleet was reduced by more than half. Loans were repaid and assets were written down to their market values, avoiding the overhang of debt that was to put many other owners into financial jeopardy.

Sir YK retired in 1986, and his son-in-law Dr Helmut Sohmen became Chairman. Following a period of retrenchment, orders were placed with both the Daewoo and Hyundai shipyards. The first of these vessels was aptly named World Phoenix, signaling a return to life after one of the bleakest recessions. The vessels were delivered just as the tanker market began to show signs of life and newbuilding prices began to rise.

In addition to steady growth represented by newbuilding programmes and long-term deals, there have been further commercial coups. In 2000, World-Wide expanded its tanker fleet by 24 ships in the space of three months, with the delivery of six newbuildings coinciding with the friendly takeover of the public Swedish tanker company N&T Argonaut.