Smit International
Smit Internationale N.V. is a Dutch company operating in the maritime sector. The company was founded in 1842 by Fop Smit as a towage company with only the 140 horsepower paddle steamer tug Kinderdijk.
Fop's sons, Jan and Leendert, continued the company under the name L.Smit &Co and expanded the fleet. In 1870, they began using tugs with propellers.
After a merger in 1923 with Internationale Sleepdienst, the name was changed to "L. Smit & Co.'s Internationale Sleepdienst". Formerly listed at the NYSE Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam, the company was fully acquired by Royal Boskalis Westminster in 2010.
Takeover
Dutch marine engineer Boskalis made an indicative €1.11 billion takeover offer for Smit on 15 September 2008. Despite the offer being promptly rejected by Smit's board, Boskalis subsequently built a stake of over 25% in the firm and expressed a continuing desire to buy a number of its business units. A revised offer from Boskalis of €1.35 billion, coupled with a pledge to retain the Smit name and its distinct operations, was accepted by the firm's board in January 2010, with Boskalis declaring its offer unconditional that March having reached share ownership of 90%. Smit's shares were delisted from the Amsterdam Stock Exchange on 4 May 2010.Corporate structure
The company consist of four divisions, in order of revenue:- Transport & Heavy Lift
- Salvage
- Harbour Towage
- Terminals
Fleet list
For these three businesses Smit has an extensive fleet of 408 ships as per 1 March 2009| Type of vessel details on power, tonnage etc. | Harbour Towage | Terminals | Transport & Heavy Lift | Total |
| Ocean-going tug 14000-26000 hp | 3 | 3 | ||
| Ocean-going tug 6140 hp | 1 | 1 | ||
| Anchor handling tugs 10000-15000 hp | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Anchor handling tugs 8000 hp | 2 | 4 | 6 | |
| Anchor handling tugs 3000-8000 hp | 1 | 20 | 21 | |
| Diving support vessel | 2 | 2 | ||
| Utility vessels | 5 | 5 | ||
| Floating sheerlegs seagoing, 3200 tonnes | 1 | 1 | ||
| Floating sheerlegs seagoing, <3200 tonnes | 8 | 8 | ||
| Pulling barges | 2 | 2 | ||
| Seagoing barges 24000 tonnes | 3 | 3 | ||
| Seagoing barges 1000-14000 tonnes | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Seagoing barges 1000-8000 tonnes | 10 | 19 | 29 | |
| Inland barges 100-2000 tonnes | 28 | 26 | 54 | |
| Coastal/harbour tugs 3000-6000 hp | 109 | 31 | 2 | 142 |
| Coastal/harbour tugs 1000-3000 hp | 37 | 4 | 2 | 43 |
| Harbour/river tugs 100-1000 hp | 9 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| Harbour/river pusher tugs 480-2800 hp | 5 | 5 | ||
| Various vessels work-vessels, oil containment vessels etc. | 17 | 18 | 29 | 38 |
| Total fleet | 213 | 60 | 135 | 480 |
High profile operations
Its marine salvage division was involved in several high-profile salvage operations, including:- MT Betelgeuse
- The Russian submarine Kursk
- Ehime Maru
- MV Prestige
- MV Mighty Servant 3
- MS Costa Concordia
- MOL Comfort mysteriously sunk in June 2013.
Often unrealized is the environmental importance of oil removal in many salvage operations. Smit International has dedicated much research into their modern equipment used to extract remaining oil of sunken vessels. They have also partnered with the French firm JLMD System to support preinstalled Fast Oil Recovery systems, which assure quick reliable oil removal in the event of a shipping accident.