September 24, 2019 The SAAM Huasteca tug is already under construction, and was recently ordered by SAAM Towage from the Vietnamese Damen Song Cam shipyard owned by the Damen Shipyards Group from the Netherlands. The ASD Tug 2813 should begin operating in late February 2020 in the Mexican port of Veracruz and will meet the maneuverability requirements of the new northern terminal.
“After new terminal entry criteria were established for merchant ships, studies were carried out that specified the need for more powerful tugs with specific maneuverability characteristics. In a few months we will be able to satisfy this requirement with our SAAM Huasteca, which has a tremendous fixed point pulling capacity and the qualities that the Escort class notation provides by design,” explained Mr. Pablo Cáceres, Technical Manager at SAAM Towage.
The tug will be delivered by the shipyard to Hai-Phong in January. It will have a bollard pull of 85 tons and will reach a maximum speed of 13 knots. It has two 2,525 kW Caterpillar engines, Kongsberg azimuthal thrusters, and includes outdoor firefighting capability recognized under Class FF1 notation.