Four tugs are currently operating in the Dutch port while the Aponte subsidiary has left Antwerp after entering into a commercial alliance with Multraship Towage & Salvage
After Antwerp in Belgium and Gioia Tauro in Italy, the division of the MSC group dedicated to protective towing has recently also made its debut in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
The confirmation comes from some images posted on social networks by fans of the sector as well as from the tracking of three tugs of the MedTug fleet that are currently operating in the Maasvlakte area. More precisely, these are the tugs Med Acruz, Med Aldebaran, Med Capella, and Med Polaris.
According to what SHIPPING ITALY was able to rebuild MedTug a few days ago it transferred its tugs previously employed in the port of Antwerp to Rotterdam where instead it entered into a new commercial agreement with the company Multraship Towage & Salvage (Boluda Towage group) for services assistance and towing for its container ships.
As a result of this agreement, therefore, the division of MSC dedicated to towing has transferred its vehicles and activities to the Dutch airport where it has already begun to offer assistance ‘on its own to its units that climb Rotterdam.
As happened in Italy, where as mentioned MedTug is now active with its own means only in the Gioia Tauro airport (following the acquisition of 50% of ConTug in the hands of the Scafi Group), Msc, therefore, seems to be using its own company active in the port towing as a tool to reduce the bargaining power of counterparties in the ports in which it operates most.
In fact, in the last year, as also done by Svitzer (Maersk group) in Savona – Vado Ligure, Msc also faced several tenders for the assignment of the towing service in various ports (Civitavecchia, La Spezia, Genoa) to acquire information and details on the conditions of the tender except in the end not to participate in the tenders but forcing the incumbent operators to put on the table probably more competitive economic conditions than those that would have been offered in the absence of other parties interested in the same contract.
Source Shipping Italy
