On October 19th, 2006, after 7 years of legal battles with the Authorities in France, Société Nouvelle de Remorquage du Havre assisted its first vessel, the ‘Horncap’ of Hamburg based Hornlinie.

In doing so, SNRH has fulfilled the wishes of their International client base to break the towage monopoly in Le Havre and to offer the same client friendly and competitive service that they receive from the Kotug Group in the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg and Bremerhaven.

It has always been a challenge for us to treat our clients as ‘customers’ of the port instead of “port users”, as they have been called and treated in the past. Only through the total commitment and strong support of our clients and dedicated staff and crews, we were able to proceed with our project to operate in the port of Le Havre. Our initial start-up date was scheduled for January 1st 2006 and from that day, we had 5 powerful newly built tugs laying idle. We have been caught in a political minefield for 10 months but persistence and justice has prevailed and we are delighted to finally be assisting the many customers who have stood shoulder to shoulder with us through these difficult times.

The newly introduced competitive services will have a refreshing influence on the present traditional towage services in France. The potential and capacity for growth is there; we trust to have created the first opportunity for further change!