A UK towage company, SMS Towage of Hessle, Hull, England, which has operations including Belfast Harbour, has been acquired by Boluda Towage, a division of Boluda Corporación Marítima of Valencia, Spain, writes Jehan Ashmore.
Boluda Towage has signed an agreement for the acquisition of the British towage company, which took place last month at the SMS Towage's head office based in Hessle, East Yorkshire. The acquisition involves taking over the harbour and offshore towage services and marine operations, together with the management, office staff, crew, and fleet, based in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Operating in the UK since 1992, first as a ship management company and since 2002 as a towage operator, SMS has emerged as a major player in the UK towage market. Towage operations first began on the Humber, and by 2012, SMS had started to service the Bristol Channel. A year later, in 2013, Belfast Harbour was added to its service portfolio, and in 2017, Portsmouth on the Solent.
Currently, the company has a fleet of 20 tugs operating in the UK ports/regions of, Tyne, Tees, Humber, Portsmouth, South Wales, and Belfast, of which Afloat highlights are Masterman (built in 2009) and Merchantman (2008), both 50 ton bollard pull that arrived at the port in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
Originally, Irishman, a 40 ton bollard pull veteran dating to 1989, first served SMS when it entered the Belfast Lough /Lagan towing market in 2013 before being stationed in Hull, downriver of its owners based in Hessle on the Humber estuary.
The Irishman, which has twin Niigata engines at 3,000 bhp and was built by the Imamura Shipbuilding Co. Ltd, Kure, Japan, is no longer on the estuary leading into the North Sea but is currently based in Newport Docks, South Wales.
The addition of SMS will strengthen the position of Boluda Towage, already operating in Invergordon (Cromarty Firth) and London, Liverpool, and Southampton, as a global leader in towage and sustainable maritime services, with a broader scope in the UK. The geographical footprint of both Boluda Towage UK and SMS Towage consolidates services.
After the official closing of the transaction, SMS will be part of Boluda Towage’s organization in the United Kingdom, and the new brand name will be Boluda Towage SMS. The local management team of Boluda Towage SMS will report to Philip Dulson, General Manager of Boluda Towage in the UK.
Boluda Towage provides towage services in the main ports of the world and Afloat highlights, the company last month in Dubai, was awarded the prestigious "Tug Owner of the Year 2024" at the 27th International Tug & Salvage Convention, Exhibition & Awards. The awards ceremony was organised by the International Tug & Salvage Association.
As to the origins of the Boluda Corporación Marítima, the family-owned business can trace its establishment to 1837, when Naviera Fos, a shipping company that used to operate in Mediterranean ports. In 1920, Vicente Boluda Marí founded a tugboat company, operating in the Valencian port. The corporation also operates another division, Boluda Shipping (see new Spain-Ireland-UK link with Samskip), in addition to port logistics.
Boluda is present on the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and operates a solid, diverse, and extensive fleet of more than 400 vessels. The division, in addition to port towage, also offers offshore and ocean towage and salvage operations.
