Thus, at the company's AGM in mid-June, CEO Hans-Herman Mohr presented figures well in the black for the second time running, with a growth rate unparalleled so far since the foundation of Senator Lines in 1987.
The Bremen-based line shipped a total of 641,000 teus, and its sixteen regular services operating in 2004 between Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Asia, Canada and South America posted an operating result of euro 63 million.
Since Senator Lines relinquished its US business in 2003, the company has operated as an independent European carrier, functioning particularly as a Europe-Asia specialist.
"We owe this outstanding result to the rapid development seen in Asia, but not only to this," Mohr emphasizes. "Since we operate primarily as a slot carrier, our 500 staff world-wide know that service is Senator Lines' recipe for success, and it cannot be otherwise."
This has already been officially recognized within the logistics industry. Thus this German carrier has received a number of international prizes for its high level of reliability and excellent customer service.
The company, which has ISO certification, received its latest award at the beginning of June from the Canadian carriers' association CIFFA (Eastern Division), whose members have voted it "Best Ocean Carrier Middle East." Senator Lines has now won this coveted award for the fourth time in a row - a success story unique so far in the annals of the CIFFA.
Only two months previously the West Division of the association also awarded the Bremen shipping line the prize of Best Middle East Carrier.
"We are very proud of Senator's 'Canadian medals'' They show how right we were at the start of 2003 to exit the global league and concentrate since then on our trade."
In its capacity as a Europe-Asia specialist, and in collaboration with its partners in the CKYHS Alliance, Senator Lines has been providing four improved Asia services since June this year, with a new sequence of ports, offering even shorter transit times.
Services with increased capacity for the growth regions of northern and southern China, for instance, now call at Shanghai three times a week. Ports newly adopted into the existing network are Nansha on the Pearl River Delta and Kwanyang in Korea.
"Thus, in collaboration with our partners, we are attaining a new level of quality, from which our customers are benefiting, and which is enabling Senator Lines to enhance its expertise still further in these growth markets," says CEO Hans-Hermann Mohr.
A further focal point in ongoing improvement of services is that of e-business.
Since this spring, as a new member of the neutral shipping portal INTTRA, Senator Lines has been offering its customers a total of four options.
