Two steel-cutting ceremonies held for new “smart” tugs for Tianjin Port

Steel-cutting ceremonies for two new Robert Allan Ltd-designed tugs to be used by the towing branch of Tianjin Port recently took place at two shipyards that are under contract to deliver two vessels each.

A steel-cutting ceremony for the first of two pilot boat/tugs was held at Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipyard on August 23. A separate ceremony for the first of two tugs of a different RAL design took place at Sanlin Shipyard, affiliated with Shanghai Harbour Fuxing Shipping Service, on August 29.

The new tugs were designed to comply with China Classification Society (CCS) requirements for intelligent ship (i-Ship) notation. The tugs will be equipped with smart-sailing, smart-hull, smart-engine room, smart-efficiency management, and smart-control centre systems.

These will be the first tugs with i-Ship notation since CCS launched these rules in March 2016.

All four tugs will be delivered to Tianjin Port by the middle of next year.