Turkish container port expands towage capabilities

Asyaport, a joint venture between MSC’s Global Terminal Limited and the Turkish Soyuer family, has started operating harbour tug Asyaport Degirmenalti in Turkey’s first container transhipment port.

Asyaport handles up to 2.5M TEU of containers per year with 2 km of quaysides and draughts up to 18 m. The joint venture partners are building a logistics centre in Barbaros, Tekirdağ, in northwest Turkey, to raise throughput at the port.

Med Marine built Asyaport Degirmenalti as part of its MED-A2360 series, based on an adapted Robert Allan design. The 23-m tug has a 10.9 m beam and 4.4 m hull depth. It was built to a RAmparts 2300-MM design with a bollard pull of 60 tones and speed of 12 knots.

Asyaport Degirmenalti’s propulsion includes a pair of Caterpillar 3512C diesel main engines, developing 1,765 kW of power at 1,800 rpm driving two Kongsberg US205 thrusters with fixed pitch propellers.

This tug also has two Caterpillar C4.4 generator sets producing 86 kW of electrical power at 1,500 rpm and 50 Hz.

Asyaport Degirmenalti has a THR Marine towing winch on the fore deck, a FiFi E fire-fighting system, which pumps 1,200 m³/hr of foam and water through two monitors.

It was built at Med Marine’s Eregli Shipyard.