Boluda Towage has opened a new headquarters at Noorderplaats in Antwerp, equipping it with a dedicated tug-handling simulator to train crews across a Northern European network that now spans more than 21 ports and 138 vessels.

The inauguration was led by Steven De Nijs, Deputy CEO of Boluda Towage Europe, and Filip De Wilde, the newly appointed General Manager of Boluda Towage in Belgium. Port authority representatives, customers, employees and business partners attended the opening.

The site replaces a simpler footprint with modern office space plus the simulator, which Boluda positions as the working heart of the facility. It lets crews and tug captains practise vessel handling and manoeuvring under realistic operating conditions — inside a controlled environment rather than alongside a 400-metre boxship.

Training modules will also cover decision-making, situational awareness, communication and preparation for different port scenarios. Experienced captains still active in daily towage operations will deliver the courses, keeping the programme anchored in current practice rather than classroom theory.

What does this change for Antwerp shippers?

In the short term, very little visibly. Towage tariffs don't move because an office moves. The commercial significance is capacity and consistency: better-trained tug crews mean fewer handling delays for mega-vessels calling Antwerp and the wider Scheldt region, and that matters for carriers running tight schedules through Europe's second-busiest container port.

There's a succession angle too. A simulator-based onboarding pipeline lets Boluda scale crew intake faster than sea-time-only training allows — a real constraint in a sector where experienced tug masters are scarce and ports keep getting busier.

A region-wide build-out

Boluda has operated in Antwerp since 2019, though its Belgian maritime roots run considerably deeper, tracing back to 1870. That's a century and a half of local presence, now backed by a physical training base.

The Antwerp opening follows the inauguration of Boluda Towage's Rotterdam headquarters in July 2026, as stated in the company's announcement. The two facilities form part of a wider strategy to strengthen the European network and develop local maritime expertise — a hub on each side of the Rhine–Scheldt delta, in other words.

Northern Europe is a significant market for the operator. Beyond Belgium and the Netherlands, Boluda's regional footprint covers the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland and Norway, with the 138-vessel fleet serving ports across all six countries.

For forwarders and carriers, the takeaway is operational rather than price-driven. A towage operator investing in training infrastructure and dual headquarters in Rotterdam and Antwerp is signalling long-term commitment to the Scheldt corridor. Expect the simulator-trained crew pipeline to support Boluda's expansion across the region as cargo volumes through Flemish and Dutch ports continue to grow.