KESS was founded by K Line Tokyo in 2003 and operates with a fleet of 11 car carrier vessels in Western and Northern Europe.

KESS was created by to both offer an intra Europe short sea service to Japanese car makers manufacturing cars in European plants, and to provide feeder carriage to smaller European ports not called at by larger oceanic vessels.

The main trade lanes are European, and specifically ports in North Continent Europe, including Germany, Belgium, UK,[2] Ireland, Scandinavia,[3] Baltic region and Russia.

On 21 September 2017, Greenpeace activists attempted to block the discharging of Volkswagen Suv and cars into Sheerness port, disrupting for several hours the operations of mv Elbe Highway.

[6] On 23 July 2018, car carrier vessel Makassar Highway ran aground at full speed in the Tjust archipelago near Loftahammar, Sweden, causing an oil spill.