With it’s fleet of 31 harbour tugs URS, on a daily basis, ensures the safe and smooth handling of vessels calling at the ports of Antwerp, Ghent, Flushing, Terneuzen, Ostend and Zeebrugge.

Specialised crews ensure an efficient and professional approach in every situation taking care of your fleet and cargo, even in the most unexpected circumstances. URS personnel have an intimate knowledge of the River Scheldt, having handled both inbound and seagoing traffic in these waters for over 100 years.

The key features of the overall URS service are:

• Powerful omni-directional tugboats
• High maintenance standards
• Permanent training of our crews
• Around the clock service

Within each of the harbours the services are allocated in the following manner:

ANTWERP
A fleet of 11 harbour tugs of various propulsion types services both the port of Antwerp on the River Scheldt and the sea canal ‘River Scheldt to Brussels’.

This fleet consists of young, highly manoeuverable harbours tugs with an average age of five years and a bollard pull ranking from 43 to 65 metric tons, capable of providing the level of precise manoeuvering needed to achieve safe passage through the five locks that separate the Port of Antwerp from the River Scheldt.

More powerful and manoeuvrable tugs are available at the tidal container terminals (North Sea Terminal, Europe Container Terminal and Deurganckdock) where they are required to assist vessels of over 300 meters LOA to safely berth and unberth in the current of the river itself.

Sector map Towage assistance - click to enlarge (PDF)

GHENT- FLUSHING-TERNEUZEN
To service the Dutch ports on the river Scheldt (Flushing and Terneuzen) and the Belgian harbours of Ghent and Sluiskil there is a fleet of over 12 tugs of various propulsion types. The tugs are stationed at the inner and outer port of Terneuzen and in the harbours of Ghent and Flushing.

Three modern combi-tugs, fitted with a retractable bow thruster of the azimuth type, are specially designed for towing work on the Ghent to Terneuzen canal, where their excellent qualities as stern tugs on the long trips to and from Ghent are greatly appreciated by the pilots.
The experience of the URS crews is also welcomed in the precise manoeuvering required to navigate the Terneuzen locks, the vital links between the river Scheldt and the canal to Ghent.

Specialist assistance is also provided at the anchorages "Everingen" and "put van Terneuzen", where frequent bulk discharge operations take place and at the "Total" and "Dow" jetties.

OSTEND
The tugboat "Ensor" was designed specifically to deal with the special requirements needed to handle the approaches to the port of Ostend. This small but powerful tug combines excellent manoeuvrability with a high bollard pull (30 metric Tons). She is equipped with a hydraulic trolling propulsion system for accurate manoeuvering.

ZEEBRUGGE
URS carries out the towing services in the inner and outer port of Zeebrugge, on behalf of the Zeebrugge Port Authorities, using 5 extremely powerful Z-peller harbour tugs. The fleet has an average age of 3 years.

The LNG carriers have to be assisted following strict procedures, and a "class 1" fire-fighting tug has to be kept on standby during the complete towing and unloading operations.

With several container lines calling on regular schedules and with car and fruit carriers becoming part of the daily port activities, Zeebrugge is becoming an increasingly important seaport. URS’s towage services, offering around the clock specialised services, have been a vital factor in this growth. The high skill and expertise of our Zeebrugge based crews has more than once proven to be of the utmost importance to vessels calling for assistance at sea under the most severe weather conditions.