R1.4bn tug contract gets under way

At a special ceremony on Thursday last week, the “cutting of the first steel” (the modern day substitute for “laying the first keel section” of yesteryear), took place at Durban’s SA Shipyards. It marked the start of a R1.4- billion contract awarded by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) for nine state-of-the-art tugboats. And it is the largest single contract awarded by TNPA to an SA company for the building of harbour craft, according to Tau Morwe, TNPA CE. The first tug will be launched in November 2015, he added, while the last will be handed over in the first quarter of 2018.These will replace ageing vessels and increase the fleets in the ports of Durban, Richards Bay, Port Elizabeth and Saldanha Bay. “To meet an almost unprecedented target of building the nine tugboats in just 42 months, they will be built in tandem,” said SA Shipyards CE, Prasheen Maharaj. This will mean five tugs will be under construction at any given time – with varying launch dates. The new tugs will be the most powerful ever to enter TNPA’s service. Compared to the older-generation tugs currently in use, which have a bollard pull* of 40 tonnes and 32.5t, eight of new tugs will have a 70t bollard pull, according to Rufus Lekala, TNPA chief harbour master. At 31 metres long, 11.5m wide and 18m high they are also slightly larger than the existing ones. “More remarkably,” he added, “the ninth and final tug to be built will be 42m long, 15m wide and have a bollard pull of 100t – matching the most powerful tugs in the world.” This increased bollard pull – which meets international standards – is designed to handle the increasing size of commercial vessels calling at SA. There is another move to meet the tight building programme. The sub-contractors installing electrical systems, engines and propulsion units have established workshops in SA Shipyards’ premises. *The bollard pull is a means of measuring in tonnes the maximum pull that the tug can exert on a stationary ship or object and is a way of understanding the available power of the tug.