Belgian-Dutch maritime services venture established

Combined Marine Terminal Operations Worldwide (CTOW) will manage these services at dedicated maritime terminals on a worldwide scale, which includes all related port operation activities. Given the combined experience and resources of its shareholders, CTOW promises to enhance international competition in the field of global terminal management and maritime services.

CTOW’s three shareholders are leading names in the maritime services sector. They are dredging, environmental and marine engineering group DEME, through its daughter companies Dredging International and Baggerwerken Decloedt; marine engineering company Herbosch-Kiere; and Multraship Towage & Salvage, a division of Muller Maritime Group. All three shareholding companies are based in the Belgian-Dutch border region, and their worldwide activities originate from the maritime services deployed by all three of them on the Scheldt River, the North Sea Coast, and its adjacent ports and terminals.

In the broadest sense, CTOW provides maritime services all over the world. In particular, the new company focuses on providing marine services for dedicated terminals. The global service package of CTOW includes assistance with mooring and line handling and manoeuvring in and out of the harbour; pilotage services and towage; maintenance, repair, inspection and diving services at mooring facilities, piers, loading and discharging installations; traditional port activities such as operating bunker barges, crew and personnel transfer services; emergency at sea response, firefighting, general safety and security as well as oil pollution combating services. Hence, CTOW activities go well beyond the mere provision of towage services.

Dedicated terminals are built for one specific client and, in general, they focus on one specific kind of activity. CTOW is dealing with a very particular group of clients, such as oil & gas companies that are building an LNG terminal; mining groups that are shipping ore from their own jetty or terminal; utility companies operating from a dedicated terminal for offshore energy production; quarries wishing to export their products overseas, etc.

The long term partnering contracts which CTOW negotiates with private clients typically extend over periods in the order of five to fifteen years. CTOW’s shareholders typically build port facilities, access channels, and mooring facilities for those same clients, and have already established a good working relationship with them.

CTOW’s clients increasingly demand one single operator, having the capacity and the experience to run a dedicated terminal and to provide all necessary marine services, preferring this approach to working with a variety of subcontractors.

CTOW shareholders possess all the necessary plant, equipment and financial backing to make their common venture a successful business undertaking. In view of its professed long term vision and commitment to operate in a sustainable way, CTOW is open to local partnerships and to organizing proper training of local workforces wherever required.