As much of the port and transport facilities had been destroyed by the war and most of the local people had fled to escape repression and concentration camps, the whole infrastructure was brought into being by Moscow functionaries. Necessary arrangements were made to revive the port and establish appropriate services to ensure that the shipping business worked smoothly.

Meantime the Klaipeda shipping agency Inflot was set up as an exact copy of all Soviet shipping agencies to service only foreign ships. Specialists to staff the office were brought from various parts of the USSR, mainly Odessa and Leningrad. As the port was gaining power in the seventies and eighties up to 1200 foreign ships alone were serviced by the agency. So we had our hands full coping with the amount of work. Unfortunately there was no adequate remuneration for the job since all the earnings went to the Kremlin.

A new era set in when independence was regained in 1990. Private enterprise was no longer forbidden and most of the Inflot staff rushed to set up their own private companies and agencies. A lot of people from different organizations connected with the shipping trade welcomed the change in the economic and political system. Even those who in the time of perestroika vowed that they would never betray socialist principles were among the first to start up a private business.

Today Klaipeda Shipping is a private stock company where 17 persons work. About 80% of our staff are new and have proved to be hardworking, zealous and full of initiative. They spare no pains to render their best service to the customer. Experience is our advantage. As a matter of fact we are competing with about twenty similar agencies and it is the result of our good work that we are among the top three. We are well supplied materially, have our own premises and all neccesary working amenities for good and effective service. The result of all this is quite perceivable; we service about 200 ships yearly.

To keep in step with the times, our agency undertakes brokerage and chartering at the request of our clients. We book tonnage space for Sumitomo, Ferrostaal and other customers' steel to the USA. Another important trade is forwarding. This also we do solely at the request of our clients.

Thus Klaipeda Shipping is able to render a wide scope of services which are essential compete successfully in today's hard competition. We are ready to take on any job offered. Our slogan is to satisfy the customers and do it better than others. We are constantly looking for new contacts and new customers. We have rather good relations with key personnel, which helps us to get supplies readily as well as information requested by anybody in any part of the world.

We do not neglect the social part of life either. Our agency supports the church, sportsmen, artists, etc. We are proud to be recognized as one of the most influential in Klaipeda's shipping system. We are also happy to contribute to a better name to the port which, when reconstructed and renewed, will attract even more cargoes from East to West and in turn give greater satisfaction to our future customers.

Klaipeda Shipping services about 200 ships a year.