VESSELS

More tugs announced for Svitzer’s Suez fleet

5 years ago

Svitzer has announced an extension to its towage contract with the Suez Canal Authority including two additional tugs bringing the Danish tug owners fleet operating in the canal to six.

Svitzer's Suez Canal tug fleet will soon number six vessels (Svitzer)

Svitzer has operated in the Suez canal since 2019 with the RAstar 3200, 80tbp tugs Svitzer Port Said 1 and Svitzer Port Said 2 stationed at Port Said at the northern end.

Towage provision has been enhanced with the arrival of Svitzer Suez 1 and Svitzer Suez 2, RAstar 2800 variants offering similar bollard pull to the initial pair and stationed at the canal’s southern end at Port Suez (see MJ January 2022).

News of the contract extension for Svitzer AMEA (Africa, Middle East and Asia) has coincided with additional news that a further two similar tugs are to join the fleet, one stationed at Port Said and the other to the south at Port Suez, making six Svitzer tugs stationed in the canal, all crewed by a total of 120 Egyptian seafarers.

The ‘symmetrical’ disposition of the fleet is a reminder that when the container ship Ever Given ran aground in the canal a year ago, passage was blocked completely, meaning tugs positioned to the north could not pass if required to assist from the southern side and vice versa.

Svitzer has turned to Turkish tug operator and builder Med Marine for the two new vessels with its version of the Robert Allan Ltd RAstar 2800 tug, designated as the MED-A 2885 by Med Marine. As is common with series tug production nowadays delivery time is short, the vessels scheduled to be in service by the end of May 2022 from Med Marine’s Eregli Shipyard on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.

Brief details of the pair include a LOA of 28.4m on a beam of 13m and maximum draught 5.7m. They will meet IMO Tier II standards, powered by 2,100kW Caterpillar 3516C main engines driving Kongsberg US 255S FP thrusters providing 75tbp and speed 12kn. Slipping clutches will be included for firefighting capabilities.

Melis Üçüncü, sales manager, Med Marine, said: “We are thrilled to be delivering our most favourable tugs to Svitzer. Deliveries of these boats are as exciting as the other projects we have with our valuable client. We are very excited about the contract and being able deliver state of the art units to Svitzer.”