The story of Tecomar , one of the shipping companies that marked the beginning of containerized maritime transport in Mexico during the 1970s, opens a new chapter. This time, it’s not about recalling its operations or the obstacles it faced in developing infrastructure at the port of Tuxpan, Veracruz, but rather about identifying who made that business project possible and recognizing the various responsibilities that converged in its consolidation.
Half a century after that logistical transformation, the Harmsen Wolff family , through their representative, Grisselle Wolff, has undertaken a documentary recovery effort to expand the historical memory of Tecomar and give visibility to those who participated in its founding, financing, administration and operational development.
The initiative stems from the publication of the book Tecomar, by Carlos Viveros Figueroa , a work that reconstructs the institutional, commercial and logistical challenges that the company faced to establish maritime container operations in Tuxpan, when the port lacked specialized infrastructure and Mexico was just beginning to incorporate this mode of transport.
While acknowledging Viveros’s contribution, the family believes it is necessary to distinguish between the management and leadership roles he held and the responsibilities of those who originally founded and promoted the company. Their position is not intended to create a personal conflict, but rather to contribute to a more complete historical reconstruction, based on documents and testimonies from those directly involved in the company.
According to information provided by the family and published in the digital archive Bitácora Tecomar , the founders of the shipping company were Peter Harmsen Garms, Arturo Wolff Alfaro and Hermann Stoldt Rank , three entrepreneurs whose contributions ranged from the conception of the maritime business to its financial backing and corporate articulation.
In that structure, Arturo Wolff Alfaro is identified as one of the main financial promoters and first chairman of the Board of Directors; Hermann Stoldt Rank, as founding partner and vice chairman; while Peter Harmsen Garms appears as a central figure in the commercial and operational conception of the project, particularly in the establishment of maritime container services between Mexico, the United States and Europe.
Harmsen’s experience in the German shipping sector and his knowledge of the logistical needs of the automotive industry would have been key in identifying the opportunity to establish a supply corridor to the Volkswagen plant in Puebla , using Tuxpan as the point of entry for goods.
That decision represented a considerable challenge. In the early 1970s, Tuxpan lacked the necessary facilities to regularly service container ships, while administrative restrictions and resistance from various sectors of the transport industry complicated the introduction of a model that replaced traditional general cargo handling with standardized units.
In this context, Carlos Viveros’s participation also becomes relevant. During the presentation of his book , the author recalled the negotiations necessary to obtain permits and develop private infrastructure in the port. “It was a real mess, but we pulled it off,” he said, describing the administrative difficulties that accompanied the project.
The distinction proposed by the Harmsen Wolff family focuses precisely on that point: recognizing the importance of these efforts without exclusively attributing to one of its participants the conception and materialization of a business initiative that required capital, maritime knowledge, commercial relationships, legal advice and operational capacity.
The interest in clarifying these facts also found support among former members of the company. In a collective letter dated September 8, 2026, of which T21 has a copy , six former directors, officers, and employees requested that Formas e Imágenes, the book’s publisher and printer, and Librería Porrúa, responsible for its distribution, review the facts and statements contained in the work.
Among the signatories are Helmut Mueller, who served as vice president; René H. Ruvalcaba Andrade, former director of Operations; Hans Klug, former general supervisor; and Eduardo Gallo y Tello, former tax advisor, as well as Eduardo Kokke Rocha and José Carlos Medina Rendón.
The request proposes to compare the content of the publication with historical documentation, testimonies and other sources related to Tecomar , as well as to incorporate any relevant clarifications in future editions.
“Our request is not intended to generate a personal confrontation or limit the expression of opinions,” the document states, emphasizing the need to preserve the memory of the founders and those who participated in the development of the shipping company.
The document is accompanied by an informational note that questions several passages in the book , particularly those related to the partners’ responsibilities, the legal procedures for initiating operations, and Peter Harmsen’s involvement in strategic decisions. Among the episodes mentioned is the arrival of the ship Dorli on June 24, 1973, whose operation, according to the document, was preceded by an injunction filed by the company with the intervention of lawyer Omar Olvera de Luna.
Harmsen’s participation in the establishment of Transportadora Multimodal Mexicana is also claimed , and reference is made to legal procedures related to the land movement of containers, an activity that faced regulatory restrictions during those years.
These statements broaden the reconstruction of the process, although they require distinguishing between the testimonies of its protagonists and the legal evidence that proves specific responsibilities.
One of the documentary details that can be independently verified pertains to the regulatory framework . The document points out that the prologue of the book reverses the promulgation dates of two laws: the Ports Law was published on July 19, 1993, while the Navigation Law appeared on January 4, 1994, according to the records of the Official Gazette of the Federation.
As part of this effort, the family launched Bitácora Tecomar , a digital historical archive that compiles photographs, newspaper clippings, testimonials, and materials about the company’s history. The site also includes information about vessels such as the Tajín, Tuxpan, and Tumilco , which were part of its maritime development.
The archive provides an additional source for studying the company’s history, although the review conducted so far does not definitively establish all aspects of its original shareholding structure . Consulting the articles of incorporation and the corresponding corporate records will be essential to formally corroborate the founders’ participation and the responsibilities attributed to each.
Furthermore, Viveros’s own narrative contains elements that reveal the collective nature of that experience. During the presentation of his book, the author recalled that Tecomar once handled 40% of maritime traffic between Mexico and Europe and that Tuxpan achieved second place nationally in container handling in 1989 and 1990, figures he presented as part of the company’s legacy.
Thus, the author’s contributions and the Harmsen Wolff family’s perspective are not necessarily mutually exclusive. While the former reconstructs the negotiations and obstacles that accompanied the transaction, the latter seeks to shed greater light on the business, financial, and commercial decisions that made it possible.
Tecomar’s history extends beyond its executives . It includes port workers, merchant mariners, legal specialists, and logistics operators who participated in building a national maritime service with international connections, as well as the memory of the 27 crew members of the Tuxpan who lost their lives in the North Atlantic.
More than five decades after its initial operations, Tecomar’s legacy offers an opportunity to revisit a pivotal period in the history of the Mexican merchant marine . The significance of this historical recovery lies not in replacing one of its key figures with another, but in documenting how a collective initiative transformed the logistical capabilities of Tuxpan. Recognizing those who contributed capital, knowledge, management skills, and labor does not fragment Tecomar’s history; it allows for a more precise understanding of the scope of what they built.
(Main photo: taken from the Bitácora Tecomar website )
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