New powerhouse tugboats for Port
Transnet spends R1.4-billion on robust new tugs for four ports.
NINE state-of-the-art tugboats have gone into construction at Durban-based shipyards to replace ageing vessels at the Richards Bay, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Saldanha Bay ports.
With a price tag of R1.4-billion, the contract is the single largest awarded by the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) to a South African company for the building of harbour craft.
TNPA Chief Executive Officer Tau Morwe said the acquisition is ‘consistent with Transnet’s market demand strategy to provide capacity ahead of demand, ensuring productivity and operational efficiency’.
An ambitious target has been set for all nine new tugboats to be completed in only 42 months.
To meet the ‘almost unprecedented’ deadline, SA Shipyards Chief Executive, Prasheen Maharaj, explained they would be constructed in tandem with five tugs under construction at any given time with different launch dates.
In another move to keep up with the tight schedule, subcontractors supplying technical expertise have established workshops on site for the installation of electrical systems, engines and propulsion units.
TNPA said the subcontractors are Barloworld/Caterpillar, Siemens and Voith Schneider.
The first tugboat will be launched in November next year, while the last one is expected to be handed over in the first quarter of 2018.
Bigger and better
The port authority emphasised the new tugs will be ‘the most powerful ever’ to enter TNPA’s service.
Compared to the older generation vessels currently in use, which have a bollard pull of 40 and 32.5 tons, eight of the new tugs will have a 70-ton bollard pull.
‘At 31 metres long, 11.5 metres wide and 18 metres high, they are also slightly larger than the existing ones,’ said TNPA Chief Harbour Master Rufus Lekala.
‘More remarkably, the ninth and final tug to be built will be 42 metres long, 15 metres wide and have a bollard pull of 100 tons making it the most powerful tug in the world!’
The increased bollard pull meets international standards to handle the increasing size of commercial vessels calling at South African Ports.
