Cornelis Verolme sets up his first company Scheepsinstallatiebedrijf Nederland N.V. in 1946 and subsequently took over two shipyards; one in Alblasserdam in 1950 and another in Heusden in 1953. The demand for ever-larger ships led Verolme to decide to start operating in this segment too. That called for a new yard, preferably in deep water, close to the sea. In 1956 Cornelis Verolme started the construction of the yard on the New Waterway in Rotterdam.

In 1969, Dock 7 was constructed. For this, a massive pit had to be graven. This pit was 500 metres long, 170 metres wide and 20 metres deep. The mammoth dock became fully operational on 16 December 1970. A trial docking took place involving the VLCC Esso Europoort. This 348 metre-long tanker weighing 255,000 dwt had been fabricated at the nearby new-building slipway.

Beginning in 1971 a recommendation commission of the Dutch Government drove a fusion between the Verolme-Group and Rijn-Schelde Group, known as the Rijn-Schelde-Verolme (RSV) Group. In 2002, the Verolme Botlek yard was sold to Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd based in Singapore. As a consequence, the Verolme yard became part of a worldwide network of prominent offshore, ship repair and newbuilding yards.

In 2017, the yard became part of the Damen Shipyards Group.