Antwerp get a new tug company

The introduction of Antwerp Towage NV in mid-September represents an important part of the joint overall philosophy of Fairplay and Multraship to significantly strengthen harbour towage services in northwest European ports. The new company will have an office on the Tavenierkaai in Antwerp and will provide shipowners and charterers with a responsive and efficient tug service in the river areas of the port of Antwerp.

Fairplay and Multraship joined forces to create a platform to strengthen their strategic position and to expand their activities jointly. The Antwerp Towage initiative is confirmation of that strategy in action, and the two companies are reported to be delighted to offer this new service at an early stage.

A four tug fleet was put in place immediately and comprises the Fairplay XVII, Fairplay 22, Multratug 5 and Multratug 10. The two Fairplay tugs were transferred from the Rotterdam fleet and the Multratug 10 from Ternuezen. Multratug 5 is the modern Japanese built ASD tug Kindeace taken on long term bare boat charter from J P Knight (Caledonian) Ltd in the UK.

The latter is a vessel of 32.5m in length and 11.40m beam, completed in 2005 and powered by two Niigata main engines generating a total of 4,397bhp (3,236kW) to achieve a bollard pull of 64 tons. Also on long term charter is the Fairplay XVII, formerly the Portuguese registered SMR Cuyutlan (ex; Algerina Neri). This 31m tractor tug has been operated almost since its completion in 1993 on the charter market. The tug has two MWM SBV8M628 diesels generating a total of 4,078bhp to drive a pair of Schottel propulsion units via ZF gearboxes for a bollard pull of 51 tons. There are plans to eventually replace these tugs with newbuildings. This new fleet will operate in competition with the long established provider URS for ship assistance work among the growing number of large ships using riverside berths in the port of Antwerp.