Newbuild tugs in Q2 for German ports

German owners have been busy ordering newbuild tugboats in 2025, with more opportunities coming to support ships at ports and terminals in the area. 

During Riviera’s TUGTECHNOLOGY ’25 conference in Antwerp, Belgium, in May, H Schramm Towage signed a contract with Sanmar Shipyards to construct a twin Z-drive tractor tug. 

A Delicay-class tractor tug will be built at one of Sanmar’s shipyards in Turkey to Robert Allan Ltd’s TRAktor-Z 2500SX design, which is exclusive to the shipbuilder, with 80 tonnes of bollard pull. This 25-m tug will have a beam of 12 m, a draught of 6 m, a FiFi1 fire-fighting system for emergency response, twin Caterpillar E-series main diesel engines, an exhaust gas aftertreatment system for compliance with stringent IMO Tier III emissions standards, and two Kongsberg-manufactured Z-drive thrusters.

H Schramm Towage is a family owned company that primarily operates in northern Germany where the Elbe River meets the North Sea, and in the Baltic Sea and Kiel Canal.

In April, Fairplay Towage and Louis Meyer Neue ordered four tugs with low emissions from Damen Shipyards for delivery over the coming year. These tugboats will be constructed at Damen’s shipyards in China and Vietnam and transported on heavy-lift ships to the Port of Rotterdam upon completion before being mobilised to their home ports in northern Europe.

Three of these newbuild vessels will be built for Fairplay and the other for Neue Schleppdampfschiffsreederei Louis Meyer, to go on long-term bareboat charter with Fairplay in Germany.

For Fairplay, Damen will build two reverse stern drive (RSD) tugs to its RSD 2513 design and an azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugboat to its ASD 2312 design, while another ASD 2312 tug will be built for Louis Meyer. All will have engines connected to aftertreatment modules to remove NOx from their exhaust, ensuring these tugs comply with IMO Tier III emissions standards. These vessels will have FiFi1 fire-fighting systems for emergency response and packages enabling these tugs to operate within LNG terminals. 

Also in Q2 2025, the Lithuanian Inland Waterways Authority (VVKD) contracted Kotug International to provide an electric-powered pusher tug under a European Union (EU) co-funded project in the Baltic region. Kotug Push-it will deliver the first fully electric pusher tug to operate in the Baltic states in Q4 2026 after its construction at the Padmos Shipyard in Stellendam, the Netherlands.

This will be constructed to Kotug’s E-Pusher L design to push cargo barges supplied by VVKD on the Nemunas River. It will feature an energy storage system with enough power to sail for up to 50 hours or over a range of 300 km on a single charge.

Van Wijngaarden Marine Services signed a letter of intent with Kooiman Marine to construct a 47-m multipurpose workboat with dynamic positioning to DP2, an anchor-handling winch, and two deck cranes, with propulsion compliant to IMO Tier III emissions standards.

In the UK, Williams Shipping ordered a EuroCarrier 2495 design, 24-m vessel from Neptune Marine to support marine construction as the owner renews its fleet. This will be built with a beam of 10 m, a draught of 2 m, a bollard pull of 24 tonnes and a deck crane.

Neptune is also building a EuroTug 3413 design vessel for its own stock with Bureau Veritas class for work in ice with DP, three Caterpillar C-32 engines, IMO Tier III compliance and a bollard pull of 65 tonnes.