Colombia: Intertug Expands Its Fleet with New Damen Tug ASD 3213 ‘Tanok’

Damen Shipyards has delivered the ASD 3213 ‘Tanok’ to Colombian tug operator Intertug S.A. Intertug (est. 1993) operates the country’s most modern tug fleet in terms of horsepower and fleet age.

The Damen ASD 3213 has a bollard pull of 86.5 t and 80 t astern and is one of the most powerful harbour tugs in the world. In addition, Intertug ordered an ASD 3212 that will be delivered from Damen Shipyards Galati (Romania) end of May 2012.

The booming Latin American market meant that Intertug needed the vessel as soon as possible. Damen could offer a delivery time, from stock, of just two weeks. Additionally, Intertug wanted a vessel that provides continuous service reliability and with high residual value.

Ambitious fleet expansion

Family-owned Intertug was founded in 1993 as a tugboat service company in Cartagena. Nowadays the company is run by the two sisters, Arlene (CEO) and Vivian Dahl (Vice-President Commercial). Ms Vivian Dahl says:“INTERTUG is actively working on achieving one of the goals set out in its Strategic Plan for the next 5 years which is the expansion and growth of the tugboat business in the Latin American markets with a model based on a modern and powerful fleet, operational excellence and the best human resource. Throughout the years, we have established a partnership with DAMEN because of its high quality standards to support these goals.”

Since its inception as a tugboat service company Intertug has expanded into related activities. The two sisters embarked on a rapid fleet expansion programme investing in newbuilds. The company now has a fleet of 26 vessels, 13 of which have been designed and built by Damen Shipyards. This includes Stan Tugs ranging from 40 to 70 t bollard pull and a growing number of ASD tugs. After investing in several Damen ASDs 2810 with a 60 ton bollard pull, Intertug has now broadened its scope by the ASDs 3212 and 3213. Tanok is the most powerful vessel in the fleet.

Tanok

Tanok was built at Damen Song Cam Shipyard in Vietnam and is tremendously powerful with two Caterpillar C280-8/MC engines, giving it a total power of 7,268 Horsepower. The new tug is equipped with a 15 m crane with a 5 t lifting capacity and although a Damen ‘standard’, the ASD 3213 offers high levels of crew comfort and daylight accommodation, which was one of Intertug’s requirements. The Damen standard ASD 3213 has a double drum fore and aft winch, Fi-Fi 1 and a large stern roller with towing pins to guide the towing line in adverse weather conditions.

The latest addition to the fleet will be providing offshore assistance in Dos Bocas for Mexican National Oil Company PEMEX.

Customer Finance

Intertug and Damen have worked together for around 20 years. Similar to a great number of previously acquired vessels, Intertug decided to opt for a financing structure with Damen Customer Finance. Thanks to the excellent track record of both Intertug and Damen’s Customer Finance department, the financing could be arranged within the extremely short delivery time of the vessel.

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Source: Damen, April 5, 2012