The Netherlands’ biggest shipbuilding company, Damen Shipyards, is also
an important player in the global market for tugboats. When it comes to developing and adapting new technologies, Damens tug builders are right
in the forefront.
At 32 locations in Europe and all over the world Damen Shipyards has subsidiaries. Partner yards and business cooperations enhance[ds_preview] the network. As Damen states, this strategy of wide spread activities enables the company to provide their customers very short delivery times. When a new ship is ordered, the nearest dedicated yard will build or outfit it.
The span of products in Damen’s tug segment reaches from the tiny »Stan Launch 1004« with a 1.2t bollard pull to the 200t bollard pull »Anchor Handling Tug Supplier 200«, a total of 48 standardized models. Each one can be individually modified in its features for the customers needs – »taylor made«, as Damen calls it. To shorten delivery times, a variety of of standard hulls is always kept in stock. Currently a range of 25 types of Standard Stan Tugs, ASD Tugs and ATD Tugs, as well as Rotor Tugs ART 32-80 are built on stock in dedicated tug boat yards in the Netherlands, Rumania, UAE, Vietnam and China.
When Kommer Damen took over the company from his father in 1969, he introduced this modular shipbuilding concept for small boats and launches. It was this decision, as Damen states, that laid the foundation for the company’s present success.
Besides the tugs, the company’s portfolio includes Offshore Supply Vessels, dredgers, ferries, naval vessels, tankers and other cargo vessels as well as pontoons and barges. The total turn over of the group is approximately 2 bill. € a year. »The tug domain’s share is between 10% and 15% of the group turnover, with a healty result«, says Coen Boudestejn, Product Director Tugs. The company’s share in the global shiphandling tug market he estimates at 25%. »The tug business is one of the key activities of the Damen Group and the worldwide Damen Tugs market share is still growing«, Boudestejn says, and a look at the figures seems to prove him right. In 2014 a total of 82 tugs were delivered by the yard, approximately 200 are under construction at the moment. Scheduled for delivery in 2015 there are approximately 75 vessels for customers worldwide. »Damen delivers tugs from Auckland to St Petersburg and from Cape Town to Panama, to more than 110 countries«, Boudestejn outlines.
Improving proven standards
To retain its position, Damen is working constantly on improvements, the Product Director explains. As the newest developements he names the ASD Tugs 2608 ICE class and 3010 ICE class, as well as the ASD Tug 2913 and the Rotor Tug ART 32–80, all of them dedicated shiphandling tugs to be introduced in 2015.
As environmental issues more and more force shipbuilding companies to rethink their designs for energy saving hulls and environmentally friendly propulsion, developement of tugs does not rest idle, either. Gas propulsion seems to become a viable way for the shipping industry to save resources and reduce emissions.
»Damen is working on a revolutionary new shiphandling tug design, the Damen RSD Tug 2513 on gas«, Boudestejn says.The new vessel Damen works on with German engine manufacturer MTU Friedrichshafen, a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Power Systems, and Denmark’s harbour towage operator Svitzer, will be powerd by a 2,000 kW MTU engine that will solely run on compressed natural gas (CNG). According to Rolls Royce, the acceleration will be comparable to the company’s diesel engines. Due to the clean combustion concept, compliance with IMO Tier 3 emission legislation will be ensured without additional exhaust gas after treatment.
In 2014 Norwegian operator Buksèr & Berging already put in service the worlds first two LNG-powered tugboats, »Borgoy« and »Bokn«, built by Sanmar in Turkey.
In the face of many harbours trying to reduce air pollution in their jurisdiction, the Dutch shipyard already satrted a few years ago to develope the »E3 Tug«. This project by Damen, Smit internationale NV, Alewijnse Marine Technology and others at the Imares Institute of the University of Wageningen worked on a new hybrid propulsion system for harbour tugs. In the end of the research and trials Damen came up with a hybrid concept for their already existing ASD 2810 tug. It combines a Diesel- and an electric engine. In June 2014 the first of these vessels was delivered to Dutch operator Iskes Towing & Salvage. Also Multratug, since February, operates one ASD Tug 2810 and Kotug took delivery of a Robert Allen-designed Rotor Tug ART 32-80. Three Hybrid ASD Tugs 2810 are currently under construction for the Dutch Navy.
Another research project Damen is participating in is the Marine Safe Tug Project. At the Maritme Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) it is being tested how tugboats could be improved with regard to safe and efficient operation under extreme weather conditions.
In spite of all the achievements yet made, Boudestejn still sees potential for technical developement in the fields of remote controlled condition maintenance systems, low emissions, and low fuel consumption propulsion systems. »Future challenges are the same as our challenges today, developing efficient, compact and safe shiphandling tugs of high quality and with proven technology«, he resumes.
Felix Selzer
