SAAM SMIT Towage Orders Damen ASD Tug

SAAM SMIT Towage, a joint venture between SAAM S.A. of Chile and Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., has signed a contract for the purchase of a Damen Tug 2913 for delivery in early 2016, the shipbuilder announced today.

This order, signed at the Offshore Energy Exhibition in Amsterdam, signals the first new tug purchase by SAAM SMIT since its establishment in July 2014.

The joint venture operates in Mexico, Brazil, Panama and Canada, though the new ASD 2913 will be based initially in Panama.

Upon receiving the order, the tug was already currently under construction at Damen Shipyards Galati in Romania as part of Damen’s policy of building for stock. This will allow her to be delivered in around six months from the signing of the contract.

The ASD Tug 2913 has been designed primarily as a compact, maneuverable and powerful tug, suited for busy harbors and waterways where space is limited, as well as for more general operations in open water, Damen said. With a bollard pull of 80 metric tons, it can handle the largest vessels, and has a double hull to comply with the latest regulations.

The vessel for SAAM SMIT will feature a number of Damen options including firefighting (FiFi1) capability.

This is the third of Damen’s new ASD Tug 2913 series to be sold, with the first being delivered in February 2015 to Petersen & Alpers for service in Hamburg.