Sanmar Shipyards to build 6 vessels for Port Qasim Authority

Turkish shipbuilder Sanmar Shipyards has signed a contract for the construction of six vessels with the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) in Pakistan.

The $33.46 million deal includes four high-performance tugboats and two pilot boats. The ships will form part of the Kocacay range of escort and harbour tug series, based on the exclusive-to-Sanmar RAstar 3200SX design from Canada-based naval architects Robert Allan Ltd.

The tugs are scheduled to be delivered in 12 months and the pilot boats in 10, Sanmar said.

Three of the 32m x 13m x 5.6m high-powered LNG compatible tugs will have 75 tonnes of bollard pull (BP) ahead and astern, while the fourth will have an even greater BP of 85 tonnes. The two 20m pilot boats will have the capability to sail at a speed of 20 knots.

The first two tugs in the series, nammed Thor of Scapa and Odin of Scapa, were delivered to the Orkney Islands Council in the UK last year.

They are being used for ship-handling, towing, escort and emergency response duties and have been purposely designed with a shallower draught than most other tugs of similar size to ensure greater operational flexibility even with the depth limitations in some of the piers within Scapa Flow.

“Sanmar has been delivering tugs to Pakistan since 2000. We have tugs in KPT and PQA ports. However, this tender was one of the most challenging one due to tough competition. Our designers Robert Allan Ltd and supplier Kongsberg Marine have worked closely with Sanmar engineers to deliver best performance solution for PQA,” Ali Gurun, Vice President of Sanmar, said.

2020 was a record year for Sanmar Shipyards despite the impact of the pandemic, with delivery of 30 tugs. As informed, 13 of these were for overseas clients with 10 more delivered to Turkish tugboat operators.  A total of 7 of these joined to Sanmar’s own fleet.