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Newbuild tugs head to African terminals
Fleets of tugs have been built by shipyards in Turkey and Asia for expanded and newly opened shipping terminals in Africa
Investments in African ports have led to several series of tugboats being built and mobilised to harbours, ready to assist large ships carrying rising levels of cargo.
Owners and port authorities have worked together to enhance towage in the continent’s harbours and terminals, and improve emergency response capabilities with newbuilds.
Tunisia’s Office of the Merchant Marine and Ports (OMMP) has renewed its tugboat fleet with azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugs built by Med Marine’s Eregli Shipyard on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
The sixth and final RAmparts 2800 tugboat for the government authority, newbuild ER171, was launched in December 2025 and will be delivered along with two more in Q1 2026.
Three others, Bulla Regia, El Jem and Oudhna, were delivered in Q4 2025. These 28-m, 428-gt tugs are capable of ship escort, towing, mooring and pushing, and emergency response with a FiFi-E class off-ship firefighting system.
They have a beam of 12 m, a draught of 5 m, a bollard pull ahead of 60 tonnes, a top speed of 12 knots and accommodation for eight crew.
Further along the northern coast, Svitzer added to its fleet of tugboats supporting container ships visiting the Tanger Med port in Morocco on the Strait of Gibraltar.
This is Africa’s largest logistics hub, with more than 10M TEU capacity offered by four terminals. Situated just 15 km from Spain, it is an important transhipment port.
For this port, Uzmar built 32-m, 499-dwt escort tug Svitzer Ouezzane in Turkey and delivered it in Q4 2025.
Med Marine also built two tugboats as part of its MED-A3200 series to Robert Allan’s RAstar 3200-W design for AD Ports subsidiary Noatum Maritime.
Marshall Islands-flagged, 497-gt Alnouf and Alyasat 1 are sailing to West Africa to support gas carriers at an LNG terminal and were sailing off Senegal in late January, heading to Lekki, a major port in Nigeria, according to automatic identification system (AIS) information.
These 32-m tugs are outfitted for towing, escorting, pushing, mooring and FiFi1 firefighting, with a beam of 13 m, a draught of 6 m, around 80 tonnes of bollard pull, a top speed of 12 knots and accommodation for 10 crew.
Alnouf and Alyasat 1 were configured for operations in high-security and sensitive environments, challenging port conditions and regulated maritime zones, with fire-risk mitigation systems and emergency crew evacuation protocols.
In December, Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority (DPFZA) named two new harbour tugs built in southeast Asia to support ships up to 390 m long in Tadjourah Port and the Damergog oil terminal.
Saad Warsama Dirieh and Farah Hassan Ragueh were built by Damen Shipyards to an ASD 3600 design with a bollard pull of 70 tonnes, a top speed of 12 knots and total installed power of 4,100 kW coming from two Caterpillar main diesel four-stroke, high-speed engines.
In Kenya, the port authority welcomed 26.5-m tugboat Manda in October 2025 at Mombasa after its construction by Bogazici Shipyard in Turkey.
It has a beam of 9 m, a depth of 3 m, a speed of 10 knots and a bollard pull of 35 tonnes coming from two Rolls-Royce mtu main engines, a towing winch and a knuckle deck crane.
Mineral export support
Singapore-headquartered Winning International is one of the largest tugboat owners in Africa, and the most frequent investor in newbuilds.
It has a series of newbuild tugs under construction at several Malaysian shipyards to support its growing dry bulk offshore transhipment operations and activities in its Boké Port in Guinea, which comprises two zones – Katougouma Port and Dapilon Port – and in Port of Morebaya in southern Guinea.
Winning received newbuilds in 2025 from Eastern Marine Shipbuilding, Hung Seng Shipbuilding, Sapangar Shipyard and Sapor Shipbuilding Industries.
COSCO Shipping Bulk Cargo Transportation Co is also adding tugboats to its fleet supporting bauxite mining, exports and transhipments in Guinea.
Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipyard has built these tugboats with heavy lift ships in multiple batches for the Chinese owner with the firth batch including tug Yick Tug 112 completed in Q4 2025.
The 28th International Tug & Salvage Convention, Exhibition & Awards will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, in association with Caterpillar, 19-21 May 2026. Use this link for more details of this industry event and the associated social and networking opportunities.
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