Caterpillar Marine’s dealer in Turkey, Borusan, has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Turkish shipbuilder Sanmar Shipyards for the supply of a range of propulsion units over the next three years.
The LOI covers the supply of Cat propulsion engines and generator sets to Sanmar for their building program over the coming three years. At least 84 propulsion engines and 86 generator sets are expected to be supplied between now and 2018. These will include 26x Cat C32, 22x Cat 3512C, 36x Cat 3516C propulsion engines and 86x Cat C4.4 generator sets. The engines will primarily power tugboats providing bollard pulls of between 60 and 85 metric tons.
“The profile of the tugboat sector is changing,” commented Cem Seven, Sanmar’s Managing Director. “Consolidation means there are fewer but larger tugboat operators which are increasingly focused on bigger, more powerful vessels to meet the very best standards on sustainability. Demand is shifting to more innovative tugboats which are capable of meeting the designed bollard pull more efficiently. This is what the Cat engines help us to provide to our customers.”
Mark Harrison, Caterpillar Marine Regional Sales Manager, said, “We are delighted to have this seal of approval from one of the industry’s leaders. Our strategy is to focus of designing products to help our customers be successful. For tugs, that is high reliability at increased engine power with quicker acceleration while at the same time providing lower fuel consumption, lower emissions and increased sustainability.”
Sanmar builds vessels for many of the world’s tug operators, recently commissioning a second shipyard in Turkey to handle growing demand. This year, Sanmar achieved delivery of 25 tugboats to owners from 10 different countries, establishing a new record for the shipbuilder.