The christening is traditionally accompanied by the smashing of a bottle of champagne on the tug, so that is what happened with the Taurus. All under the approving eyes of representatives of the internationally operating Danish company Svitzer, to which operating company Port Towage Amsterdam (PTA) the Taurus belongs. The 26-meter Taurus, built in Turkey, will serve on the North Sea Canal between IJmuiden and Amsterdam. She is Svitzer's first TRAnsverse tug. Expected to be a game-changer for the maritime service industry.

Wijsmuller
Like PTA, Svitzer also operates from the port of IJmuiden. The Danish company has been operating here since 2001, when it acquired then-competitor and larger Wijsmuller. Originally founded in 1833 by Emil Zeuthen Svitzer, Svitzer was a salvage company with a network along the Danish, Norwegian and Dutch coasts. If a ship ran into trouble, Svitzer would send a salvage crew to it. The group became active as a port towage company when it took over a company in that sector at the end of the 20th century.

Maersk
Shortly after World War II, the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group took an equity stake in Svitzer that grew to an 80% stake in the 1970s. Recently Maersk decided to corporatize the Svitzer business unit by listing on the stock exchange. Maersk shareholders received new shares in Svitzer in proportion to their shares in the group. Meanwhile, Svitzer is listed on the Nasdaq Copenhagen.

Climate neutral by 2040
Svitzer, which has 450 vessels worldwide and provides services in at least 140 port cities, is on track to reduce CO2 emissions from its fleet by half by 20230. The goal is to operate completely climate neutral by 2040.