TOWLINES

Batteries in Maritime	Autonomy at Sea	Alternative Fuels	Tugs, Towing & Salvage

Examining the growing role of batteries in maritime, questioning their green credentials while exploring industry insights, operator experiences and lessons learned from early electric vessel adoption worldwide.	Highlighting the innovators advancing subsea and maritime technology, from autonomous underwater swarms to cloud-connected assets and data-driven predictive models, reshaping how real-time conditions at sea are understood globally today.	Exploring one of the workboat sector’s dilemmas today: which emerging fuels hold the most promise in terms of cost, availability, practicality and performance? Or should we simply clean up the Black Gold?	Looking at how tugs, towing and salvage vessels are adapting to stricter regulations; contemplating new propulsion technologies and alternative fuels; and changing design strategies for one of maritime’s most demanding sectors.
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Seawork 15th - 17th June 2027	Speed@Seawork 14th June 2027	Seawork Conferences

The 28th edition of Europe’s largest commercial marine and workboat exhibition provides businesses the opportunity to showcase their services, equipment, vessels and supplies to an international audience.	Speed@Seawork on 14th June in Cowes offers a sector specific event that showcases fast vessels operating at high speed for security interventions and Search & Rescue.	Taking place at the annual Seawork Exhibition in Southampton, UK from 15–17 June 2027, Seawork Conferences deliver a varied programme of sessions featuring expert speakers addressing the latest topical issues in the commercial marine industry.
Visit the Seawork Website	Speed@Seawork on the Seawork Website	View on Seawork

“It’s not about the boats we offer, it’s about the crews that operate them” the motto of Carmet Tug Company as it celebrates 30 years on the Manchester Ship Canal.

Carmet has a solid reputation for efficient operation of ageing tugs (Carmet)

Carmet’s original founder was approached by the MSC harbour master about providing towage services on the canal and despite initial apprehensions the service was eventually established. It is a testament to the family-owned company’s resilience that the venture is successful in maintaining ageing vessels to a high standard and is currently in talks with Peel Ports about adding another 15 years life into the fleet. This would include major overhauls for the engines and generators and while admitting it would cost a lot of money Carmet state it will continue to expand and build its reputation.

Boskalis has reported an increase in revenue from its Towage & Salvage segments, up from €100.5m in 2017 to €131.7m in 2018. The two largest contributions to this revenue were the salvage and damaged cargo removal from the container ship Maersk Honam and oil removal from the SSL Kolkata. In 2018 the three harbour towage joint ventures were adversely affected by increased competition and pricing pressure, in particular resultant of the consolidation trend in the container shipping industry, developments that led to a “critical evaluation” of the book value of these joint ventures.

Engage Marine Pty Ltd and Smit Lamnalco have announced investments in the Australian harbour towage joint venture Engage Towage Pty Ltd. Current Engage Towage operations cover Port Jackson and the Port of Geelong utilising five modern ASD tugs and the scope of the joint venture is specific to providing increased choice in the Australian market with the existing businesses of Smit Lamnalco and Engage Marine (including Westug) continuing to operate independently from this newly formed JV.

Spanish machinery manufacturing company Fluidmecánica has signed it first contract with Drydocks World Dubai Shipyard for deck machinery for a newbuild tug. The tug, for P&O Reyser will be supplied with an anchor windlass with 22mm OD chain, a towing winch with automatic brake of 160 tons, a towing hook and components for the hydraulic installation of the towing winch. The contract includes the installation, supervision and commissioning of the equipment on the Lloyd’s Register-classed vessel.

By Peter Barker