Scandinavian ship-assist companies Svitzer and Alfons Håkans have ordered a series of icebreaking tugs for port operations in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Svitzer, now owned by Denmark’s Maersk Group, has ordered two 30-meter tugs to be built to a Robert Allan TundRA 3000 design by Med Marine’s Eregli Shipyard in Turkey. The twin vessels will replace the firm’s oldest boats, Svitzer Helios and Svitzer Dynan, when delivered toward the end of this year and in early 2021.
The Turkish-built vessels will incorporate azimuth stern drives to give a bollard pull of 60 tons and will be completed to Finnish-Swedish ice class 1A requirements. At the same time, Finland’s Alfons Håkans has ordered two larger and stronger tugs to be built to a Robert Allan TundRA 3200 design from Turkey’s Sanmar Shipyard for delivery in the same time period. These 32-meter long vessels will make use of Caterpillar 3512C main engines, each developing 2,000 kW at 1,600 rpm, turning Kongsberg Z-drives fitted with controllable-pitch propellers to give a bollard pull of 67 tons.
