Seaworthiness testing conducted in Istanbul before incorporating the vessels into the Canadian fleet.
Turkey, November 2, 2023. The first electric tugs in SAAM Towage’s fleet, built by the Turkish shipyard Sanmar, passed the final sea acceptance trials and bollard pull tests in Istanbul’s Tuzla Bay.
At full capacity, the new ElectRA 2300SX units, designed by Canada-based Robert Allan Ltd., will reduce their annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2,400 tons and will operate under an agreement between SAAM Towage and Teck & Neptune Terminals at the Port of Vancouver in Canada.
SAAM Towage’s Managing Director Hernán Gómez remarked that “this milestone allows us to accelerate our journey towards more sustainable operations by significantly reducing our carbon footprint. This partnership is important for both our company and Teck, as it will lend financial and technical feasibility to our common strategic objectives of driving innovation and developing increasingly sustainable operations, a model we want to replicate.”
With a length of 23.4 meters, a beam of 11.9 meters and a maximum draft of 5.5 meters, these tugs boast maximum bollard pull of 70 metric tons. They achieve optimum performance using the energy stored in two Li-ion battery banks, which will be charged using the British Columbia hydroelectric power grid, making them 100% electric, zero-emission vessels.
Sanmar Shipyards president Ali Gurun said, “It is exciting to see these revolutionary new-generation “tugs of the future” undergoing seaworthiness trials. Emission-free propulsion is no longer an aspiration for the future, but a fully viable solution for the tug industry.”
SAAM Towage operates more than 20 tugs along Canada’s west coast at nine ports in British Columbia.
SAAM Towage is the leading provider of towage services in the Americas and the third largest worldwide. With a fleet of 210 tugs at more than 90 ports in the Americas, the company completes over 140,000 maneuvers for around 40,000 vessels every year.
