Last month at the annual Damen Maritime Festival in the Netherlands, Sri Lanka Shipping Company, a subsidiary of Advantis Group, and Damen Shipyards signed a contract for the delivery of two new ASD Tug 2312 tugboats, according to the company's release. This is the first time that the two organisations have done business together, and the vessels are already being built at Damen’s Song Cam Shipyard in Vietnam.
Sri Lanka Shipping Company chose the ASD Tug 2312 based on its outstanding performance as the most versatile vessel in its class. Just 23 metres in length, it delivers up to 70 tonnes of bollard pull while the patented Twin Fin skeg plus twin Azimuth thrusters ensure excellent manoeuvrability.
Sri Lanka Shipping Company has also opted for Damen’s Triton remote monitoring system on both vessels. These deliver a wide range of real-time performance information including fuel consumption and carbon emissions to the shore-side team as well as the ships’ crew.
The vessels will be delivered in mid-2024 as they are already under construction at Damen Song Cam Shipyard in Vietnam. This is due to Damen’s policy of building its best-selling vessels in series so as to minimise delivery times. They will join the company’s existing three anchor handling tugs and the harbour tugs and will represent a significant increase in capability. They will operate primarily in the South Asian and South-East Asian regions.
Once they are delivered, the tugs will have 24/7 access to Damen’s comprehensive support services via Damen’s South-East Asia’s Service Hubs in Vietnam, Sharjah and Bangladesh.