Costamare Inc. traces its roots to the mid-1970s, when the business began under Greek captain Vasileios (Vassilis) Constantakopoulos and grew from traditional shipping into a focused owner of containerships. Over time it professionalized ship management through its affiliated manager, Costamare Shipping Company S.A., and organized the group around long-term relationships with global liner companies. Corporate materials emphasize a steady evolution from a family maritime venture to a scaled platform dedicated to container tonnage.
The company’s core model is straightforward: own containerships and charter them out—typically on multi-year time charters—to blue-chip liner operators. This approach separates asset ownership and technical operation from the liners’ cargo networks, producing contracted employment and visibility on utilization and rates. The fleet spans multiple size classes, enabling deployment on mainline East-West, North-South, and regional trades as customer needs shift.
Day-to-day operations are handled by Costamare Shipping, which provides technical management, maintenance, crewing, and compliance services across the fleet under management agreements. This integrated setup—owner plus in-house manager—aims to keep standards consistent across vessels while allowing the commercial team to focus on charter coverage and re-chartering strategy as ships roll off contracts.
While best known for containership ownership and chartering, the group has also developed activities adjacent to its core, including a dry-bulk platform that charters in and out bulk carriers and engages in contracts of affreightment and freight derivatives; those dry-bulk interests have since been organized under a dedicated unit. Across these efforts, investor and company materials highlight fleet renewal programs and selective newbuilding or secondhand acquisitions to align capacity with long-term employment.