Boluda welcomes 2 more eco-friendly harbour tugs for Port of Zeebrugge operations

Boluda Towage Europe, a subsidiary of shipping company Boluda Corporación Marítima, has taken delivery of two new low-emission harbour tugs.

The new vessels are a part of the company’s drive to reduce emissions in harbour operations in Europe. Harbour tugs VB Flandes and VB Samba were built by Damen Shipyards Group.

Both tugs comply with the most recent International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Tier III emission standards with selective catalytic reduction units to remove NOx from engine exhaust. Furthermore, they are certified with the highest FiFi1 fire-fighting standards.

Boluda will take these two units into service in the Port of Zeebrugge as part of the extended concession for towage services. In September 2020 the company signed a five-year concession agreement to provide sustainable towage services at the Port of Zeebrugge.

The firm has already added two 85-tonnes bollard pull tugs VB Bolero and VB Rumba.

Thanks to their operational flexibility, the tugs can be used for harbour and terminal (un)berthing operations, escort operations, firefighting operations, coastal and offshore towing operations.

Boluda Towage Europe has a fleet of 81 tugs and is currently operating in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom.

In July 2021, the company’s tugs assisted Evergreen’s giant containership Ever Given to sail into the Port of Rotterdam.

The 20,000 TEU containership Ever Given, which has been stuck in Egypt for months following its grounding in the Suez Canal, resumed its voyage to Rotterdam and was safely manoeuvred through the port and berthed at the Europe Container Terminals quayside.