Boluda to continue providing sustainable towage services at Port of Zeebrugge

Boluda Towage Europe has entered into a five-year concession agreement to provide sustainable towage services at the Port of Zeebrugge.

As informed, the concession is the renewal of an existing partnership and is extendable for a single period of three years.

The agreement includes eight tugboats in this port region, all certified with the highest firefighting standards and manned by a local crew.

As part of this fleet, Boluda Towage Europe will bring in two Damen-built 85-tonne bollard pull ASD tugs 2813, both complying with the most recent IMO Tier III emission standards, to the Port of Zeebrugge in December 2020. These tugs, named VB Bolero and VB Rumba, are “highly maneuverable” and environmentally friendly vessels.

Aside from the Union Koala, that was already retrofitted to the IMO Tier III standards in 2019, Boluda Towage Europe will also retrofit the Union Panda this year. Other tugs in the fleet will also be retrofitted in the first two years of the contract, according to Boluda.

In order to highlight the long-standing cooperation between both parties, Boluda Towage Europe provided the ship’s bell of the tugboat Brugge on permanent loan to the Port Authority Zeebrygge/MBZ. The ship’s bell was unveiled at the end of the ceremonial signing on 17 September.

The tugboat Brugge was the most powerful fire-fighting vessel when it was built in 1988 and was active in the Port of Zeebrugge as a fire-guard boat for LNG tankers until 2009.