Company History

Mainport started its voyage off in 1957 under the control of Finbarr Ronayne who along with his brothers formed their business; Ronayne Shipping Ltd. with offices in Parnell Place, Cork.

Due to, what is known in shipping terms as the great era of the Dutch coaster the business prospered and in 1964 diversified into stevedoring warehousing, transport and logistics. Meanwhile Finbarr Ronayne had become involved in the commercial life of Cork and became Chairman of the Port of Cork Ship Agency Association and Chairman of Cork Harbour Commissioners. He was active in the Cork Chamber of Commerce and also the Federated Union of Employers becoming President in 1973.

In 1970 the business expanded after the commencement of oil exploration in the Celtic Sea. Operations were centralized in a location in Monahan Road where Mainport head offices still reside. During this time a joint venture was established with Smit International in Rotterdam for the marketing of their offshore service craft and their own interests in Ireland and Ronayne Shipping became the leading shipping company in Ireland servicing the off shore oil industry.

Ronayne Shipping continued to flourish and in 1974 they amalgamated with some older ship agencies in Cork such as Clyde Shipping Co. ltd and A.C Horne & Co. Ltd. In 1976 further expansion took place which involved the State shipping company – Irish Shipping Ltd. and a new holding company Irish Mainport Holdings was established to achieve further expansion. Also in 1976 the oldest shipping agency in Cork James Scott & Co. Ltd. was acquired and integrated into the new group.

In 1979 Mainport became involved in the ship owning business with its first 2 vessels and a company named Seahorse who had succeeded in winning a contract from Marathon Petroleum Ireland for the provision of a platform supply vessel and a safety standby vessel to service the Kinsale gas field.

Mainport continued to grow and at the beginning of 1995 Celtic Tugs was launched with the aim to provide towage services in the ports in Ireland and around the Irish coast. Today, Mainport proudly is the largest privately owned port towage and salvage fleet operator in Ireland. In 2000 Mainport was awarded a long-term contract for the provision of 3 ASD tugs on the river Shannon on the west coast of Ireland to facilitate the different sectors on the estuary. Handling vessels of up to 180,000 tonnes deadweight on the Shannon can be quite a task and ships' captains and pilots depend very much on the efficiency and reliability of the tugs and their crews. All our tug Masters are highly experienced in the towage business. At all times our emphasis is on providing an efficient and safe operation to our customers.

As our customers grew so did our horizons. In 1997 opportunities arose to invest in South Africa in the ship agency business and Mainport Africa was born. Our original joint venture company changed its name to Mainport Africa Shipping Pty. and this ship agency company has developed significantly over the last few years. Our head office is in Durban and we also have offices in Cape Town, Richards Bay and Johannesburg.

This was followed in 2004 with a large expansion opportunity by the setting up of a joint venture company in the North Sea with our Norwegian partners, Sartor Shipping based in Bergen. There was a great business opportunity for Mainport if we could get into new sectors and with the purchase of 8 vessels all employed in the offshore oil and gas support area Mainport succeeded in breaking into this market. Ocean Mainport was founded. In Jan 2007 a further purchase, that of Havila Rescue in Aberdeen, since renamed Ocean Mainport Rescue took place and this added another 8 vessels to the J/V. We sold our interest back to Sartor on the 30th September 2008.

In Sept 2005 Mainport won a contract for the provision of a seismic support vessel from French seismic company CGG and we have since added a further 4 vessels to this division, supporting in addition to CGG, Western Geco and Wavefield Inseis. The Mainport Oak, Mainport Ash, Mainport Elm and Seahorse Supporter all operate as seismic support vessels worldwide. This division operates under the Mainport International Corporation banner.

Caspian Mainport started life in 2006 when an opportunity arose to win a contract for the provision of two large drill cutting barges in the Caspian Sea from Italian Oil company Agip who are the lead oil company in the development of the Kashagan Oil field, (to date the world’s largest oil field). With expert help Caspian Mainport was formed and succeeded in winning this contract. In the last 2 years Caspian Mainport has exceeded expectations in opportunities and growth and Caspian Mainport now have 7 ships in operation in the Caspian Sea.

Here in Mainport our team can provide different and imaginative solutions. We value all our customers and are grateful that we have customers for over 50 years and of course many new ones.

We appreciate all our customers both big and small!

Believe us we’ve seen it all before!