China has become a significant force in tug construction and will become a leader in implementing new technology into the next decade. The Asian powerhouse has increased its output of tugboats for domestic operators as the nation’s ports expand and new terminals open.
Chinese shipyards are also building tugs for export markets with vessels built for use in southeast Asia, Australia, Africa, New Zealand and across the Pacific, in Canada.
As new tugs are delivered, Chinese shipyards are enhancing their technical experience and venturing into optimised designs, intelligent tugs and LNG-fuelled vessels, with more advanced tugs expected from 2019 and certainly beyond 2020.
As emission controls are introduced along much of the coastline and inland waterways, Chinese port authorities and operators are improving ship-handling operations and ordering harbour vessels with enhanced environmental performance.
Orders for tugboats that comply with tightening emissions regulations are expected to accelerate this year.
Four leading tug builders in China – Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipbuilding, Cheoy Lee Shipyards, PaxOcean Engineering and Sanlin Shipyard – are busy with orders for different markets. Zhenjiang Shipyard has launched and delivered a series of tugs for domestic owners (see page 13).
It launched unique twin pilot and towage vessels, Jingang Lun 31 and Jingang Lun 32 in January. These vessels present China’s capability to tackle rising digitalisation trends as they have intelligent ship (i-ship) notations from China Classification Society (CCS).
Sanlin Shipyard is also building two tugboats for Tianjin Port to the i-ship notation. They will be equipped with intelligent navigation, intelligent engineroom, efficiency management and control centre systems to comply with CCS’s notation.
More i-ship tugs will be built as operators recognise the benefits of intelligent tug operations.
Zhenjiang Shipyard is also driving LNG-fuel technology as it delivers its first dual-fuel ASD tugboat for future operator Ningbo Zhoushan Port. Chinese terminals will require more dedicated tugboats to use LNG fuel instead of diesel, leading to more LNG-fuelled tugs being built this year.
PaxOcean Engineering is also building LNG-powered harbour tugs at its facility in Zhuhai, China, but these are for export. Construction began on 23 November on two dual-fuel tugs for PSA Marine’s operations in Singapore.
Cheoy Lee Shipyards has a strong export orderbook. It delivered Hinewai in New Zealand and built tugs for PSA Marine, SAAM Smit Towage Canada, South China Towing and Kenya Port Authority. This includes two stellar terminal tugs – PSA Polaris and PSA Capella – for Singapore operations (see page 13).
These deliveries demonstrate the variety of markets Chinese shipyards are producing tugs for and the greater levels of complexity in building and outfitting they are tackling.
There will be considerable competition from other Asian shipyards in the next decade, as there has been in this one, with Damen constructing stock tugs from its Vietnamese facilities and yards in Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh all constructing tugs this year (see page 16).
However, Chinese yards have the advantage of potentially huge orders for domestic operators that need to comply with environmental rules and their intelligent and LNG technology advantages.
We can expect many more intelligent and gas-fuelled tug newbuilding projects at Chinese shipyards this year and into the next decade.
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.