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Major tug construction project completed for COSCO African project

China’s Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipyards group has completed a large multi-tug newbuilding order for a huge mining project in West Africa

Zhenjiang Shipyard returned to full production in April, after slowing down tug construction to follow coronavirus restrictions in Q1 2020. Tug building and deliveries recommenced in March and on 3 May, it completed two series of pusher and towing tugs for an aluminium ore mining project in Guinea, Africa.

In total, Zhenjiang Shipyard in Jiangsu province has completed 11 of these tugs for COSCO Shipping Bulk Co, which is supporting bauxite mining in Guinea, part of China’s One Belt and One Road strategy of investment in ports, projects and shipping.

On 3 May, the shipyard delivered Yi Tuo (Yick Tug) 206 and 207 , completing the COSCO tug building project of 11 pusher and towing tugs.

During March and April, Zhenjiang Shipyard tackled a backlog of work to complete five more of these 37-m pusher tugs Yi Tuo (Yick Tug) 103, 104, 203, 204, 205.

These each have a breadth of around 14.4 m, depth of 5.1 m, speed of almost 12 knots and bollard pull of about 42 tonnes.

This was not the only project the shipyard recently completed. Zhenjiang Shipyard delivered an azimuth stern drive (ASD) tug to Zhoushan Xinya Shipyard Co on 28 April.

Xinya Towing 6 is a 37.5-m long ASD tug with 2,646 kW of power and 12.8 knots of speed. It has a breadth of 10 m, hull depth of 4.5 m, draught of 3.4 m and reverse drag force of 39.5 tonnes.

Shipyards maintain tug productivity despite coronavirus pandemic A wave of new tug orders for Chinese and Japanese shipyards Chinese port achieves LNG-fuelled tug milestone Zhenjiang Shipyard has reached milestones in other tug construction projects on 27 April for domestic owners, laying the keel of a 2,980 kW-powered ASD tug for Caofeidian Tug Ship Co, with the vessel planned for manoeuvring ships in Tangshan Port.

Shipbuilders also completed block assembly for another 2,980 kW-powered ASD tug for Fujian Tugboat Co.

This follows lift launching ASD tugboat Xin Bei Bu Wan Gang 18 on 18 April. This 2,942-kW tug is being built for Guangxi Beibuwan Tugboat Co who also witnessed lift launching of a similar ASD tug on 7 April at the shipyard.

Zhenjiang Shipyard started constructing two new ASD tugs on 29 March for Zhenjiang Port Tug Co and YangZhou Port Tug Co and laid the keel for a 3,680-kW ASD tugboat for Zhenjiang Port Group on 22 March.