Tug Fleet News

There’s an obvious fuel saving advantage, but partnering energy storage systems with new fuels brings other advantages too.There’s a new generation of vessels emerging which is exemplified by Grimaldi’s PCTC Grande Shanghai, claimed to reduce fuel consumption by 50% compared to previous-generation car carriers, and the NCL Vestland, a container feeder vessel similarly claimed to reduce energy consumption per TEU per nautical mile by 63%.What these vessels have in common is a propulsion system that combines energy storage systems and new fuels.As Henrik Helgesen…

AAM Towage and Caterpillar Marine signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), to evaluate and implement alternative power solutions to diesel, including electrification and alternative fuels such as methanol and ethanol, for the tug fleet.Both companies are already working on a dual-fuel engine—the Cat® 3500E—which will use methanol and is expected to begin testing this year.SAAM Towage is active in towage and marine services at more than 90 ports in 13 countries in the Americas.

The all-electric tugboat HaiSea Wamis is the first of HaiSea Marine’s five new eco-friendly tugs to travel from North Vancouver to the company's base of operations in Kitimat.A team of eight Haisla members piloted the HaiSea Wamis home, marking a milestone for HaiSea Marine, a partnership primarily owned by the Haisla Nation and Seaspan ULC. This occasion was a family affair for the Ross family, spanning three generations: Ed Ross, a deckhand for HaiSea Marine, his stepson Craig Windsor…

Wilson Sons said it has started operations on WS Dorado at the Ponta da Madeira, Itaqui and Alumar terminals facilities in São Luís, Maranhão.Designed by the Dutch Damen Shipyards, it is the fifth powerful tug with more sustainable technology in a range of six 2513-class tugboats. Built at the company’s shipyards in Guarujá (SP), the new tug will support berthing and unberthing operations in these terminals facilities, attending large ships exporting iron ore, which carry up to 400,000 tons of cargo.WS Dorado joins the company's fleet of 11 tugboats in that region.

Dutch shipbuilder Damen and towage company Muller Dordrecht have held christening ceremony took place in the Netherlands, marking the delivery of a new Damen ASD Tug 3212.Named En Avant 26, the vessel was the third to be delivered by Damen to Muller Dordrecht in the past three years, the others being another Damen ASD Tug 3212 En Avant 25 and a Z-drive Pushboat built by Concordia Damen.The En Avant 26 was built at Damen’s specialist tug yard Damen Song Cam Shipyard in Haiphong…

Boluda Towage has added a tug to its fleet in the port of Gibraltar. The vessel, renamed VB Responder during a ceremony on Tuesday, is the company's fifth tug in Gibraltar, a strategic point for maritime transport.The event was attended by the Hon Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo KC MP, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez MP, the President of Boluda Corporación Marítima, Vicente Boluda Fos, Executive Vice President of Boluda Towage, Vicente Boluda Ceballos and the Captain of the Port, John Ghio.Vicente Boluda…

Damen Shipyards and SAFEEN Group, part of AD Ports Group, have signed an agreement for the lease and purchase of an all-electric Damen RSD-E Tug 2513.The RSD-E Tug 2513 will be the first fully electric tug to operate in the Middle East, according to Damen.The tug, which is 25 metres in length with bollard pull of 70 tonnes, is capable of manoeuvring even the largest vessels and can undertake two or more assignments before being recharged, which takes two hours.Following the successful launch of the class in August 2022 in the Port of Auckland…

HaiSea Marine, majority owned by Haisla Nation in partnership with Seaspan ULC, is celebrating the official naming and blessing of its new floating operations facility – which will be the home base for its fleet of three full-electric and two liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled tugboats.The new facility, named Zewén, is a floating operations and maintenance building purpose-built and designed to withstand the extreme tidal range in the Kitimat region. It features a large workshop…

A third electric-powered tug built by Sanmar Shipyards in Turkiye has arrived in Vancouver, Canada, to join HaiSea Marine’s fleet.HaiSea Brave will work in Vancouver alongside its sisters HaiSea Wamis and HaiSea Wee'git before all three – along with two Sanmar-built liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled tugs – are transferred to LNG Canada’s new export facility in Kitimat, British Columbia.Based on the ElectRA 2800 SX design by Canadian naval architects Robert Allan Ltd, HaiSea Brave…

KOTUG International, a marine services and towage provider based in the Netherlands, announced on Thursday it has concluded its acquisition of Kotug Seabulk Maritime (KSM), taking full ownership of the Caribbean marine towage business.KOTUG said it has acquired the interest of its joint venture partner, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based SEACOR Holdings via its Seabulk subsidiary KS Maritime Holdings, owner of the 50% share in KSM.Founded in 2017, KSM acts as the exclusive provider of maritime terminal support services for Buckeye Partners’ Bahamas Hub…

Neue Schleppdampfschiffsreederei Louis Meyer GmbH & Co. KG of Hamburg has placed an order with Damen Shipyards for the one of the first of its next generation ASD Tug 2111 class. The vessel will be operated on a long-term charter by Emder Schlepp-Betrieb GmbH (ESB) for operations in its home port of Emden, one of the top three ports in Europe for car shipping. There, its shallow draft and compact size together with its over 50 tonnes of bollard pull, make it ideal for manoeuvring…

Established in 1907 as the Industrial Revolution arrived to Seattle, Markey is the oldest privately-held winch manufacturer in the United States today. The company was formed in the Georgetown District of what later became known as King County, Wash. The Markey sign above its original manufacturing plant, on Horton Street, is still retained, although Markey has since moved to its current facility on 8th Avenue South.Markey was a major supplier to the U.S. Navy in both world wars…

A.P. Moller - Maersk's towage arm Svitzer announced the continued expansion of its fleet in Brazil, as part of the ongoing growth of its operations in the country.Svitzer Monte KT is the fourth tug to join the fleet in the country since April. The vessel is a sister to three tugs already delivered to Svitzer in 2023, which have been deployed across the ports of Pécem, Paranagua, and Santos on Brazil’s coast. The tug is one of six new Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) tugs that will be put into operation by Svitzer in Brazil before the end of 2024.

Turkey's Sanmar Shipyards announced it has delivered a second electric-powered tug to HaiSea Marine in Canada.The newly built HaiSea Wee’git and its sister HaiSea Wamis, delivered earlier this year, will provide harbor and escort tugboat services to tankers calling at LNG Canada’s new export facility in Kitimat, British Columbia. A third electric tug, HaiSea Brave,  is scheduled to be delivered later this year.The 28.4-meter-long tugs are based on the exclusive-to-Sanmar ElectRA 2800SX design from Vancouver-headquartered naval architects, Robert Allan Ltd.

Offshore service vessels, along with workboats serving harbors and inland rivers, have embarked on an industry-wide voyage toward reduced emissions of greenhouse gasses. Professor Craig Philip, a faculty member with Vanderbilt University’s Center for Transportation and Operational Resilience (VECTOR) and former CEO of Ingram Barge Company, provides this context: “The Maritime Sector has long provided shippers with the most fuel-efficient and sustainable freight transport option…

The fuel switch in maritime is on, its real, and it will be driving vessel design, construction and operation decisions for decades to come. While many still debate the merits of each alternative fuel, OSV industry leaders are at the forefront driving change, and they need to be, as in North America alone OSVs makes up 17% of the fleet but contributes 29% of the maritime emissions. In the next edition of Offshore Engineer, Barry Parker takes a deeper dive on the plans underway to wean maritime operations off of fossil fuels.

A.P. Moller-Maersk's towage operator arm Svitzer on Thursday said it will limit vessel speeds across its entire tug fleet after a speed reduction pilot program led to considerable emissions reductions.Svitzer's so-called Aim for 8 speed initiative—first trialed in the U.K. from late 2021—asks tug crews to navigate at a maximum speed of eight knots during mobilization and demobilization in an effort to reduce fuel burn and vessel emissions. Svitzer said this speed target was chosen…

The Training & Consultancy division of KOTUG International (KOTUG) and U.S. maritime education and maritime training provider the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI) entered into a strategic partnership to offer exclusive training of tug masters, ships’ crews, river barge shippers, and pilots by certified KOTUG trainers at SCI training facilities across the United States. The partnership was officially kicked-off by hosting Moran Towing Corporation for a week of ASD operator training assisted by Riven Marine founder Captain Jay Rivera.Since 2019…

ABS is supporting McAllister on its sustainability journey with greenhouse gas inventory and sustainability reporting services for its fleet of more than 75 tugboats, crew boats and barges.ABS specialists worked with McAllister’s team to calculate its operational carbon intensity and benchmark the performance of its fleet, leading up to an Environmental, Societal and Governance (ESG) report. The team helped McAllister establish a transparent governance and stakeholder engagement strategy…

Singapore-based Sembcorp Marine chose Schottel’s azimuthal hybrid drive system SYDRIVE-E to power the world’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) hybrid tug. With this first in a series of 12 vessels, Sembcorp Marine will build the world’s first hybrid LNG-fueled tug fleet that will replace its existing diesel-powered tugs. The vessel is designed by LMG Marin, a wholly owned Sembcorp Marine subsidiary, and a leading naval architecture design house in Bergen, Norway, which provides…

Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics, a developer of autonomous command and control systems for surface vessels, said it has been awarded a multi-year Other Transaction (OT) agreement by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to initiate a prototype that will enable commercial ocean-service barges as autonomous Forward Arming and Refueling Point (FARP) units for an Amphibious Maritime Projection Platform (AMPP).Under this OT agreement, Sea Machines will engineer…

Eastern Shipbuilding Group said it has delivered the second of two 80-foot, 5,100-horsepower Z-drive tugs for Bisso Offshore, a division of E.N. Bisso & Son of New Orleans, La.Following delivery on June 11, the newbuild ship-handling tug A. Thomas Higgins completed its bollard pull testing witnessed by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and received its USCG Sub-M Certificate of Inspection (COI). In addition to  A. Thomas Higgins, E.N. Bisso has taken delivery of five previous modern Z-drive ship assist tugs from Eastern from 2007, including Josephine Anne, Beverly B, Elizabeth B, Archie T.

Brazilian port and maritime logistics operator Wilson Sons is installing internet and camera systems on its tug fleet to allow real-time visualization of operations and maneuvers, including by customers.Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) and Network Cabling project was developed by the company's innovation laboratory Tuglab, in partnership with the IT management of the company’s towage division.In total, 480 cameras and local internet network will be installed. The equipment has already been installed in almost half of the tugboat fleet…