Spotted: Port of Sharjah’s New Tug to Pull In Heavyweights

The Sharjah Port and Customs Authority has taken delivery of a Damen ASD tug 2411, named Al Luolo’ Aya during a ceremony held at Damen Shipyards Sharjah, UAE. 

The ASD 2411 tug, fully “built in Sharjah for Sharjah,” is the port’s first ASD tug. Besides this tug, the port operates eight Damen Stan tugs and a recently delivered Damen pilot boat.

With a 68.5 tonne bollard pull ahead, the Damen ASD Tug 2411 will be deployed at Port Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates. The vessel is fully equipped with FiFi 1 and water spraying notation.

“The ASD Tugs are highly manoeuverable and powerful and ideally suited to operations in Khor Fakkan. We are extremely proud to have built this vessel ‘in Sharjah and for Sharjah’ according to the world’s highest shipbuilding standards,” Pascal Slingerland, Damen Sales Manager Middle East, said.

Khor Fakkan container transhipment port is located on Sharjah’s Indian Ocean coast, outside the Straits of Hormuz and close to the main east-west shipping routes. The port recently underwent an expansion project and the new tug will allow the port to handle even larger container vessels, according to the release.

A series of ASD tugs 2411 and 2810 is being built at Damen Shipyards Sharjah, located in the Hamriyah Free Zone, one of three ports owned and operated by Sharjah Ports Authority.