The Grande San Paolo of the Grimaldi shipping company was the first ship to arrive directly in Bremerhaven from Rio de Janeiro with 450 vehicles from the Brazilian production plant. The cars had previously been released in Hamburg from the factory in Juiz de Fora and were then transported to the technical center at the Bremerhaven car terminal by truck.

The Italian Grimaldi group is a globally operating logistics company. The shipping company, which continues to be family-run, holds investments and branch offices in 20 countries. In Germany, distribution is done by Grimaldi Germany GmbH. Manager Hans-J'rgen Sell states, 'The Grimaldi Group operates a fleet of 120 ships and employs more than 8,000 people.'

In 2007, 2.4 million passengers, 2.8 million automobiles and 1.8 million rolling high & heavy units and containers were handled. An ambitious reconstruction program will see a further 30 ships built and commence transportation by 2012.

The Grimaldi carriers now arrive regularly in Bremerhaven every 10 days and will soon unload around 1,000 vehicles at our car terminal each time. The annual quantity will be around 34,000 automobiles.