The tramp shipping company Rudolf A. Oetker KG - RAO, part of the Hamburg Süd group, is currently celebrating its 50th Anniversary.

RAO was founded on 1 August 1952 and registered in Hamburg on 25 November of the same year. The Dr. August Oetker KG with its new owner, Rudolf A. Oetker, founded the new company to diversify the shipping activities of the liner shipping company Hamburg Süd, which had been established since 1871.

In contrast to liner shipping, tramp shipping does not operate to a fixed schedule. The shipping routes and sailings are adapted to the particular cargo flows.

RAO's operations comprise:
- bulk shipping, e.g. ore, coal, grain
- product tanker shipping, e.g. crude oil products such as petrol, as well
as molasses and vegetable oils
- conventional refrigerated shipping, e.g. bananas, fruits, meat
- container tramp shipping

Following the acquisition of the Furness Withy Group, London/Melbourne, at the beginning of the 1990s and Aliança Navegacaõ e Logistica Ltda., Rio de Janeiro, in 1998, the company's bulk shipping activities expanded into the Pacific and South-East Asian region.

RAO operates three owned vessels and has a long-term charter fleet of some eighty ships in the areas bulk, product tankers and containers.