Svitzer orders six ASD tugs from Turkey’s Sanmar Shipyard

Svitzer CTO Kristian Brauner: "New tugs are key elements in fulfilling our profitable growth strategy"

AUGUST 27, 2015 – Maersk Group member Svitzer has signed a newbuilding contract with Sanmar Shipyard in Turkey for the construction of six 70 tonne bollard pull RAstar 2800-E Class ASD tugs. They will be terminal tugs with escort capability and accommodations for eight crew members. Delivery of the first is expected in fourth quarter 2016.

“We have placed an order for six ASD tugs to fulfil Svitzer’s current and upcoming new contracts. These new tugs are key elements in fulfilling our profitable growth strategy,” says Kristian Brauner, Chief Technical Officer of Svitzer.  “Sanmar was selected due to their outstanding safety performance and construction quality, and a competitive price. We are very much looking forward to the tugs being completed and deployed in our fleet.”

The  tugs will be equipped with double drum DMT render winch, 2000 kW MTU 16V4000M63 engines, Schottel SRP 1515 thrusters and central cooling system. They are purpose-built for hot climates and are fully prepared for FiFi1 notation with water spray.

“The vessels will support our ambitious growth strategy by delivering versatile, quality tugs that will give us an edge when competing for contracts particularly in the growth markets where we have several opportunities in the pipeline”, says Kasper Friis Nilaus, Chief Commercial Officer of Svitzer.

“We are proud to be the winner of this tender which required hard work, commitment and dedication of all our team,” says Sanmar board member Ali Gürün. “We are very much looking forward to utilizing Sanmar’s expertise with Svitzer’s experience. This project is a good example of building and delivering high quality tugs with top level health and safety standards but with competitive prices; but still built in Europe.”

Sanmar Shipyards is a specialist tug shipbuilderswith a production capacity of 25 tugboats per year at its two state of the art shipyards. The whole tugbuilding process is completed indoors. Its reference includes the world’s first LNG fueled tugboats.