The Ateliers et Chantiers de France (ACF) company was officially founded on 6 July 1898 by a consortium of six shipping brokers, the Dunkirk chamber of commerce and the state.

[1] The state asked that the shipyard be able to build steamships and also four-masted barques and clippers with metal hulls.

The state ceded the public land within the fortifications of Dunkirk to the east of the channel, and undertook levelling of the site and excavation of a launching basin.

The shipyard was busy in the period before World War I (1914–18) building trawlers, cargo chips and cruise boats.

[2] In 1914 the Forges at Chantiers de France fitted armor on three cars at the request of a Royal Naval Air Service squadron in Dunkirk.

[3] In 1924 the shipyard joined forces with the Société des Forges & Chantiers de la Méditerranée and the Société des Ateliers et Chantiers de St Nazaire to submit a joint bid to build submarines for Poland.

[6] The ACF struggled against competition from other yards in France and abroad, and was affected by the depressed economy of the 1930s.

Naval orders were important, including the destroyers Bourrasque, Adroit, Le Triomphant, Lion and Vauban as well as minesweepers and tankers.

[1] The motor tanker of 14,115 tons, built for the Compagne Navale des Petroles, was sunk on 12 October 1939 by gunfire from German submarine U-48.

[8] In 1948–52 the shipyard built the liners Flandre, Calédonien and Cambodge for the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes.

It moved into construction of large oil tankers, as well as bulk carriers of ore and other products.

[9] In 1960 the Schneider group took a major stake in the enterprise, and in following years rationalized production in Dunkirk with operations at other sites.

[1] In 1974–81 the shipyard employed 3,000 workers and staff to design and build seven 130,000 cubic metres (4,600,000 cu ft) LNG carriers.