Fairplay Towage takes over of Polish operator WUZ

The previous owner of WUZ, the Port Authority of Gdynia, issued a privatisation tender for the entire WUZ Gdynia activities in March 2011. The process, including screening, due diligence and related negotiations, was finalised mid-August. WUZ was established in the early 1930s and now provides a number of maritime activities in the Port of Gdynia, such as harbour and coastal towage, mooring services and the operation of pilot boats.

WUZ operates nine tugs, including two modern azimuthing stern drive tugs (ASDs) of 45 tons bollard pull and seven twin screw tugs. The fleet also includes two pontoons, two mooring boats and a pilot tender.

Fairplay Towage first entered the towage industry in Poland in 2003 with the acquisition of the then defunct operator Porta Zegluga (currently Project Zegluga) in Szczecin, followed in 2008 with the purchase of Port-Hol in Swinoujscie. Fairplay recently combined its towage activities in Szczecin and Swinoujscie, including those on the River Odra between both ports, to form Fairplay Polska, with Project Zegluga acting exclusively as Fairplay’s internal and external crewing agent and technical manager.

With the takeover of WUZ, Fairplay Towage is the prime towage provider in Polish ports. In an internal statement, the employees of WUZ were reassured that because the company is well organized, no dramatic changes will be implemented except integrating WUZ into Fairplay’s European network. With the takeover of WUZ, the Fairplay owned fleet has grown considerably to more than 40 tugs.

Fairplay Towage was established in Hamburg in 1905 and is today engaged in harbour towage in most of the German ports, in Rotterdam and Antwerp, Terneuzen (through its 50% shareholding in Multraship) and in the Bulgarian Black Sea ports. The company is also involved in offshore services for the oil industry, coastal and deepsea towage, and as owners of a shipyard in Hamburg. Fairplay is also a partner, with other German tug owners, in the ‘ARGE Küstenschutz’, an organisation formed in 2001 to provide the German Government with three of the world’s most versatile and modern ETVs in the North Sea and along the coast of the German Baltic Sea.