A series of tug newbuilding orders and construction milestones in the past month demonstrate high productivity in Chinese shipyards
There has been a string of tugboat newbuilding orders and launches in Chinese shipyards, highlighting the strength in demand from port operators.
Chinese shipyards have prospered from domestic newbuilding tug contracts this year as ports seek to enhance their towage capabilities as larger ships are introduced to global fleets.
The latest orders were for Cheoy Lee Shipyards and Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipyard Group.
Cheoy Lee has started working on the first of four harbour tugs at Hin Lee Shipyard in China. All four of these 492-gt tugs will have an overall length of 32 m and draught of 4.7 m.
They will be built for delivery from Q2 2021 onwards with up to 55 tonnes of bollard pull. Their hulls will have a breadth of 13 m, 5.4 m depth and each will be equipped with two Yanmar 6EY26W main diesel engines producing 1,900 kW of power at 750 rpm.
Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipyard in China has laid the keel for a new azimuth stern drive (ASD) harbour tug for operations in Zhangjiagang Port. This tug will have total power of 3,280 kW and will be named Zhanggang 28. It is being built for Zhangjiagang Tug Ship Co.
Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipyard has also started cutting steel on harbour tugs for two other Chinese ports.
On 25 September it cut the first steel for an ASD tug for Caofeidian Tug Ship Co. This will be a 3,280-kW harbour tug for operations in Tangshan Port.
A steel cutting ceremony was also held on 16 September for an ASD harbour tug for ZhenJiang Port Group Co. This tug will have propulsion power of 3,680 kW when completed in 2021.
Prior to this, on 12 September, Jiangsu Zhenjiang launched towing tug Bao Hang 6 at its shipyard. This is an ASD tug with 4,475 kW of power being built for Liaoning Longyun Shunze Tugboat Co.
The shipyard also launched three 60-m wharf vessels it is building for Jiangsu Maritime in September.
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