Global activities at Robert Allan Ltd

This trio of news stories from RAL are outside our usual European area of coverage but will be of interest to the towage industry in general and starts with a look at the current situation with RAL tugs under construction in China.

RAL has operated in the Chinese market for several years, both for various shipyard clients and also local tug owners. Its products are to be seen in Chinese ports including: Ningbo, Tianjin, Shanghai and Shenzhen, all major terminals active in global deepsea container trades and experiencing increasing demands of such operations highlighted elsewhere in this column.

Progress has also been made on a regional level by RAL at the deep-water port of Cao Fei Dian in northern China’s Bohai Bay in Hebei Province. The port has an annual cargo capacity of over 100m tonnes and has taken delivery of its first RAL tug from Zhenjiang Shipyard, a customised RAmparts 3300 class, one of ten similar vessels built by Zhenjiang.

Six RAmparts 3200W ASD tugs are being built by Sanlin Shipyard in Shanghai, two of which customised versions for POET Investment Pte Ltd of Singapore. The remaining six are again customised versions for Talent Shipping Industrial Development Ltd of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Last year RAL signed a contract for four customised versions of its RAzer series of ASD tug for the Indonesian Port Corporation “PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III (PERSERO)” commonly known as Pelindo III. They were the first RAL designs for an Indonesian company, a country estimated to operate more than 2,000 tugs.

A mix of the RAzer class was selected, eventually ending as an order for fifteen vessels based on extensive observation of operations at Pelindo III’s 43 managed harbours. The make-up of the order was; three RAzer 2623, six RAzer 2935, four RAzer 2940 and two RAzer 2960 variants. The selection is a good indication of the modern trend to provide just the right solution with each tug suiting the particular area of operation. The series range from 26m to 29m in length and 23 to 60 tonnes bollard pulls.

Finally, closer to home for RAL, Hike Metal Products Ltd in Wheatley Ontario is building a 20m ice-breaking tug for Ports of Toronto, due to replace the 1961 vintage William Rest currently in service. The new tug’s name named Iron Guppy, was chosen by students from Waterfront Elementary School and will be powered by a single 750hp Cummins engine turning a five-bladed propeller supplying 6tbp. Iron Guppy will be a day-boat arranged for up to six persons.

By Peter Barker