Fleet contracts boost orderbook to 20 tugs for Asian shipyard

The Hong Kong-headquartered shipbuilder has at least 20 tugs either under construction, close to delivery or on order for owners and port operators in Asia and Africa.

Its biggest order is for a fleet of five tugs for Tanzania Ports Authority, which is preparing to expand the port for commercial trade and to support offshore gas projects.

Cheoy Lee is building five azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugs for the port authority for delivery in 2021. These 32-m tugs will be built to a Robert Allan RAmparts 3200-CL design. Three will have bollard pull of around 70 tonnes and two of 55 tonnes.

The orderbook also includes two escort tugs for Yiu Lian. These 32-m tugs are being built to a Robert Allan RAstar 3200-CL design. Hai Kun is scheduled for delivery in May 2020 and Hai Peng in June 2020.

PSA Marine also has a tug on order from the shipyard. This is a Z-Tech 5000 design tug with 27.4 m overall length and should be ready for delivery in January 2020.

Indian tug owner Ocean Sparkle is preparing to take delivery of an ASD tug from Cheoy Lee. Ocean Swan 4 is a Ramparts 3200-CL design tug with 32 m length and is due to be delivered in December 2019. This was part of a four-tug order from Ocean Sparkle, with the first two delivered in August 2019 and the third in November 2019.

Cheoy Lee also has a series of harbour tugs and escort tugs under construction or in planning for its own stock, says senior sales manager Jonathan Cannon.

“There is a trend towards having ready or near-ready tugs, with fewer clients wanting to wait the full term of a newbuild,” he explains to Tug Technology & Business. “Many builders now offer off-the-shelf tugs and it seems buyers are getting accustomed to this.”

Another trend in tug building is to produce vessels with higher bollard pull.

“In terms of design, we find there is a tendency toward smaller yet more powerful tugs, and our list of stock tugs reflects this,” says Mr Cannon.

Cheoy Lee built three 32-m escort tugs to RAstar 3200 design and a tug/supply vessel for PSA Marine’s Summit LNG project in 2019. Hong Kong Salvage acquired two RAstar 3200 in May 2019, Mai Po and Sung Kong.

Also in 2019, Cheoy Lee built Rotortugs for Kotug Chartering, with FMG Sandtiger and FMG Sawfish mobilised to Port Headland, Western Australia, to support Fortescue Metals Group’s mining and export operations. Robert Allan adapted its ART 80-32 design to develop the ART 85-32W design with a sponsoned hullform for these tugs.

Cheoy Lee has built two more Rotortugs, plus two RAstar 3200 escort tugs and two RAstar 2800-CL escort tugs for its own stock in 2019 in anticipation of future sales to operators in 2020 to support increasing numbers of LNG import projects.

Its stock building is evolving towards harbour tugs in 2020 with a steady stream of deliveries planned for RAmparts 3200-CL and RAmparts 2500-CL designs due for delivery throughout the year.