Oceanwindrider posted following movie to YouTube:

Two ocean-going conventional tugs are towing a VLCC passing Gulf of Biscay.

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Keith Wallis - Monday 17 December 2007

Hongkong Salvage & Towage, the territory’s largest towage company, is mulling plans to expand its fleet to match the growth in oceangoing ship movements at ports in southern China’s Pearl River estuary.

The firm, which is controlled by HUD, a 50:50 joint venture between Swire Pacific and Hutchison Whampoa, said its existing harbour tug fleet averages up to 100 tug movements per day.

HUD Group managing director Francis Cheung told Lloyd’s List that he expected to see continued significant growth in the greater Pearl River Delta ports and thought Hong Kong would continue to play a major role. “I anticipate a fleet expansion and replacement programme to match these trends,” he says. “We expect to maintain our status as the leading tug company in Hong Kong, and will continue to operate one of the youngest fleets in the world.”

Hongkong Salvage & Towage operates 13 tugs which have an average age of about seven years. The vessels include one tug which is on standby for emergency services outside the port.

Most of the company’s focus is serving containership traffic entering and leaving the Kwai Chung container terminals, although the tugs also serve a myriad of smaller, mainly bulk cargo, facilities. The tugs cover an area from Tap Shek Kok to Tolo Harbour and encompasses Victoria Harbour, Tsing Yi and Lamma Island.

The increasing size of oceangoing vessels, especially boxships, has led to the development of larger, more powerful tugs. Seven tugs in the Hongkong Salvage & Towage fleet provide 4,000 BHP and have a bollard pull of more than 50 tons.

Mr Cheung believed the trend towards more powerful tugs would continue. “Some 20 years ago we were building tugs of 2,400 BHP and these were the most powerful in the area,” he says. “Now the most common tugs deliver 4,000 BHP, but with the advent of larger container vessels I have no doubt we need to respond with more powerful and versatile tugs.”

The firm has a small but important international operation with Hong Kong-based tugs recently deployed to China and Russia. Hongkong Salvage & Towage also has contracts in the Middle East, where two salvage tugs, the 1994-built vessels Mai Po and Shek O, have been operating for several years.

Over the past two years, the company has become a more environmentally-aware and responsible concern, embarking on a campaign to measure and reduce its carbon footprint.

Mr Cheung says: “It is our ambition to become the world’s first carbon-neutral tug company.”

He adds: “We have published an annual environmental report for the past three years and we are one of the few groups in our industry to do so. We have changed to energy-efficient lighting and constantly strive to reduce carbon emissions and we try to offset the emissions which we cannot avoid.”

source: Lloyd’s List

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Shipowners have contested the new European Commission policy stating that towage can in certain cases be shielded from the full force of competition law because it is a service of “general economic interest”.

The assertion, contained in the latest Brussels port policy communication, is wrong because towage is purely a commercial service, the European Community Shipowners’ Association claims.

“Towage is not a service of general economic interest,” said Ecsa secretary general Alfons Guinier.

“For pilotage we think there is more evidence than for towage. In practical terms towage is a commercial service.”

The commission definition groups pilotage and towage together as services with a strong link to maritime safety. Mooring, on the other hand, is considered to have only a weak link.

“Technical-nautical services are pilotage, towage and mooring,” the policy document said. “Often those services are also linked to port safety. This link is much stronger in the case of pilotage and towage than with regard to mooring. Such activities may either be provided by the public administration or constitute services of general economic interest.”

The commission goes on to state that while EU laws on freedom of establishment apply to all technical-nautical services, monopolies may be justified “to the extent that they are necessary and proportionate for the provision of the service in question”.

For shipowners keen to inject as much competition as possible into the towage market, this phrase could be misused in order to set worrying precedents.

“Defining towage as a service of general economic interest could lead to abuse,” said Mr Guinier.

Tugowners’ representatives say the link established by the commission is self-evident. “Towage does provide a service which is one of general public interest,” said Andrew Dalrymple, honorary chairman of the European Tugowners’ Association.

“It has a high level of safety provision and is very much in the interests of shipowners.”

Compulsory towage is rare and is imposed at the discretion of the port authority, usually when hazardous cargo is being shipped, he pointed out.

“The commission is only basing its statement on [European Court of Justice] case law,” said Hugo Callens, tug association secretary-general. “I don’t think this will make much difference in the way we operate now.”

When is competition among towage providers desirable? This is the key question, and here there has also been some movement within the commission.

Mr Dalrymple points out that the Brussels authorities no longer use a one-size-fits-all definition of the towage market based on tonnage and passenger throughout.

Previously, EU officials believed competition was desirable when certain thresholds had been breached, whereas now they admit ports vary significantly and must be judged on their individual merits.

“A UK port handling nuclear waste will have very few ships but the cargo is very dangerous, [therefore requiring towage] whereas a major port such as Dover has thousands of ship visits from vessels which are highly manoeuvrable,” Mr Dalrymple said.

If the need for competition among towage providers is contested, the courts and ultimately the European Court of Justice will be required to decide. The commission’s new policy document will however be used as guidance when judges make up their minds.

source: Lloyd’s List