Valles Steamship boss Koo dies

Hong Kong shipping community mourns ‘last of the old guard’ Koo Kou-ming, who died on Saturday
Keith Wallis - Tuesday 16 March 2010

HONG Kong’s shipping community is mourning the loss of one of its most venerable figures following the death on Saturday of Koo Kou-ming, head of Hong Kong and Vancouver-based tanker and bulker operator Valles Steamship.

The octogenarian was the last representative of the group of Shanghai and Ningbo shipowners, who fled mainland China for Hong Kong and Taiwan before the communists took control in 1949.

One family friend said Mr Koo was “the last of the old guard. His death is the end of an era.”

Born in 1924, Mr Koo was on the last charter flight to leave Shanghai on May 16, 1949, before the city’s airport was shut, only to reopen in the 1960s.

Mr Koo was also the last patriarch of the Koo-Tung-Peng dynasty of shipowners in Hong Kong and Taiwan that had been related by family or marriage in the formation of a raft of shipping companies. Apart from Valles Steamship, these included Tai Chong Cheang Steamship, Orient Overseas Container Line, Island Navigation and Chinese Maritime Transport.

Another family friend said that Mr Koo, together with his relations including Koo Kou-hwa of Tai Chong Cheng Steamship and Tung hao-yung from Orient Overseas, should take a great deal of credit for helping to create Hong Kong’s post-war shipping community.

“Without [Mr Koo], other family members and his contemporaries, including TY Chao of Wah Kwong and later IMC’s Frank Tsao, Hong Kong’s shipowners would not be as strong as they are today,” said the friend, who pointed out that Mr Tsao initially preferred Singapore to Hong Kong after leaving China.

Mr Koo was also chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners’ Association in 1980 and 1981.

In a statement to members, association managing director Arthur Bowring, said the group announced Mr Koo’s death “with great regret”.

He added that Mr Koo was a “great supporter of the work of the association”.

Like many Chinese shipowners, Mr Koo built a strong and lasting relationship with Japanese shipbuilders with a string of tanker newbuildings, including the 105,747 dwt Seasenator . Delivery of the vessel in January 2007 cemented a relationship Mr Koo had with Japan’s Namura Shipbuilding that stretched back more than 40 years. But as China expanded its shipbuilding prowess over the last 10 years, Mr Koo returned to his roots, ordering vessels at Shanghai’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding from 2003.

Similarly, Mr Koo also developed long and trusted relations with leading charterers including Agip, Total and Eni.

Two of Mr Koo’s sons, David and Eric, took over effective day-to-day control of Valles Steamship after Mr Koo rebuilt Valles Steamship in Hong Kong in 1950. The family-related shipping business had been started by Mr Koo’s father, CS Koo, in Shanghai in 1910.

Under KM Koo’s stewardship, the company grew with offices in Tokyo, Shanghai and Mumbai.

Another son, Kingsley, is a senior vice-president at classification society ABS and a fellow Valles Steamship director. Daughter Alice is a director of the company.

Two other sons, John and Philip, formed their own shipping company, Orient Steamship, in 2002.

Valles Steamship has a fleet of around 15 vessels including 10 aframax tankers.