COSCO Shipping Bulk Transportation has ordered 11 pusher vessels for a bauxite mine project in Guinea from Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipyard in China. These tugs will each have 2,685 kW of power for pushing full and empty barges along rivers in Guinea.
Constructing these pushers is part of China’s One Belt One Road initiative, said COSCO Shipping.
Zhenjiang Shipyard started constructing the first seven of these pusher tugs in March this year after holding a steel-cutting ceremony in the shipyard.
Also in March, the shipyard successfully launched two towing tugs for the same Chinese port vessel operator.
Zhenjiang Shipyard completed the hulls of two tugs for Guangxi Beibuwan Port Tugboat Co on 8 March. These will be named Xin Beibuwangang 5 and Xin Beibuwangang 6 and are scheduled to be delivered in Q2 2019. They will be azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugs with total power of 3,824 kW.
In February, Zhenjiang Shipyard delivered an ASD tugboat to another Chinese owner. Hu Tuo 8 started operations in the Yangtze River delta for Shanghai Dayu Shipping. It has two engines each generating 1,471 kW of power. This ASD tug is serving the river and coastal economic belt, especially ports in Shanghai.
Another shipyard in the Jiangsu region delivered a new tug for a South American owner.
Jiangsu Wuxi Shipyard built ship-assist tug Lima for Peruvian operator Tramarsa in Q1 2019.
This 24.4-m tug was built to a Robert Allan RAmparts 2400-W design and ABS class with 77 tonnes of bollard pull and a free running speed ahead of 13 knots.
Lima has a pair of Caterpillar 3516C, diesel engines, each able to generate 2,240 kW of power at 1,800 rpm driving two Schottel SRP 490 fixed pitch rudderpropeller Z-drives with 280-cm diameter propellers.
It has been a busy year so far for tug construction at Jiangsu shipyards. Zhenjiang Shipyard has constructed a dual-fuel tug and completed several others in the last three months. For more information on Chinese tug construction use these links.
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