About OVET

"We are proud that our clients seeing us as a reliable and committed partner."
Vincent Courtois, Managing Director

Our staff is available 24/7 and ready to assist you

OVET handles the transshipment, storage, and processing of primarily dry bulk goods.
Our terminals are strategically located on both sides of the Western Scheldt, in Vlissingen and Terneuzen. Here, we offer our clients a wide range of logistics services as well as high-quality product processing such as screening, blending, crushing, and de-ironing.

With our floating cranes, we operate throughout the entire North Sea Port area and parts of the Western Scheldt basin. Depending on the type of goods, the combined transshipment capacity of our floating cranes is up to 80.000 tons per day. In addition, we operate several mobile harbor cranes that contribute approximately 30.000 tons per day.

Each year, we also lighten over a hundred vessels at designated locations on the Western Scheldt. OVET is trimodally connected at both terminals, offering excellent links to major international transport corridors by water, rail, and road.

With around 110 employees, we deliver quality and flexibility across all our services.
Since 1957, OVET has been making pragmatic and constructive choices, always with a strong focus on optimizing our clients’ logistics processes. Our goal is to make these processes as efficient as possible.

We offer personalized service and tailor-made solutions. We think along with our clients and are available 24/7 to support them.

Ready for the future

OVET has built a strong reputation as a committed and leading service provider in the North Sea Port area.
For our clients, we are a reliable partner focused on solid, long-term collaborations, offering a comprehensive range of tailor-made services.

Our core focus remains on the handling of dry bulk and, to some extent, breakbulk cargo flows. Naturally, we support the energy transition and contribute to it by transshipping and processing raw materials that enable the shift toward a clean and circular economy.

OVET is—and will remain—the benchmark for quality and flexibility in bulk port logistics.

Our mission

“For many years, OVET has been a key player in the ports of North Sea Port. With great pleasure we like to continue fulfilling that role.
OVET cannot be ignored being an integral part of this modern logistic hub, which, thanks to its extensive connections, reaches deep into the heart of Europe. We take pride in our reputation as a reliable and committed partner, consistently delivering high quality and responding flexibly to the needs of our clients.

OVET is also known for its pioneering work in safety and environmental care across all business processes. In the coming years, we will take this even further.

We are increasingly collaborating with partners who contribute to a clean, circular economy. OVET thínks along and progressively acts in supporting these pioneers for their challenges towards the logistic challenges they are facing.

From experience, we know better than anyone: together, we find solutions.

Vincent Courtois, Managing Director

Since 1957. Floating cranes, our driving force.

From past to present

OVET was founded in 1957 by Manufrance, a French company that opened an office in the Grand Hotel Rotterdam in Terneuzen.
The first customer was ACZC, the former coke plant in Sluiskil, which supplied the French steel industry. Terneuzen was chosen for its favorable location. The name OVET stands for Overslagbedrijf Terneuzen (Transshipment Company Terneuzen).

During the 1960s and 1970s, OVET grew into a key player in the transshipment of dry bulk goods, primarily coal used by the steel and other industries.
Thanks to its strategic location near the North Sea and the Western Scheldt, and its proximity to Germany’s Ruhr area, OVET became an important hub within the network of seaport terminals and European logistics.

The dry bulk portfolio expanded to include a wide range of materials, from ores and sand to biomass and minerals.
During the 1980s and 1990s, OVET invested in innovative technologies and equipment to improve the efficiency of cargo handling at its terminals. The first mobile floating crane handled just 6 tons per hour; by the early 1980s, this had increased to 25 tons, and today it has reached 36 tons.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, OVET has focused on digitalization and automation.
As environmental and climate concerns have become more urgent, OVET has significantly reduced its impact on the surroundings through major investments in dust control and noise reduction. Today, the focus has increasingly shifted toward the handling of sustainable and circular products.

OVET B.V. is part of OVET Holding.
The shareholders are Oxbow Transport (50.1%) and HES International (49.9%). In addition to OVET B.V., the holding also includes two sister companies: OVET Shipping (25%) and OVET Screening (67.5%). These affiliated companies work closely together to provide clients with the most optimal service.