History

1991
On 29 November 1991 SmitWijs was formed as an ocean towing joint venture of the well known Dutch maritime groups Wijsmuller (since 2001 part of the Svitzer Group) and Smit International.

1997
In 1997 the company established a tug pool with Pentow Marine (now SMIT Africa) of Cape Town. In 1999 China Ocean Engineering Services/Shanghai Salvage also joined the pool. The pool operated under the name Global Towing Alliance and SmitWijs acted as its commercial and operational manager.

2006
In November 2006, SVITZER purchased the 50% shares of Smit and become sole shareholder. Subsequently in May 2007 the company was renamed SVITZER Ocean Towage BV and the former Global Towing Alliance now operates under the name SVITZER COESS.