How Powerful Is a Tug
Tugs are highly powerful vessels equipped with exceptional pulling force, high horsepower, 360-degree maneuverability, and multi-purpose capabilities. They play a vital role in towing mega vessels, reducing operation time, cutting costs, and performing critical tasks like firefighting, icebreaking, and environmental protection.
Exceptional Pulling Force
A modern tug is normally fitted with two 6,000 kW engines and has a pulling power of 80 to 150 tons. In the Port of Rotterdam, the average pulling power of each tug amounts to 90 tons, towing vessels over 200,000 tons without any problem from their berths - and saving 40% of the time.
A large container vessel spends around $2,000 per hour for berthing costs. This can be reduced to 3 hours with the assistance of a powerful tug, which is 50 percent less than when the operation is carried out without the assistance of a tug. The deployment of efficient tugs saves over $500 million in annual delay costs. Learn more about key tug features in .
The ALP Guard ocean-going tug is fitted with the latest omnidirectional thruster technology, delivering a pulling force of up to 300 tons. Using this, a 150,000-ton drilling platform was towed to a new location in a mere 72 hours at an average towing speed of 4 knots.
During the 2021 blockage of the Suez Canal, the largest tug deployed, "Baraka 1," had a pulling force of 220 tons. These tugs worked for over 100 hours at operating costs of approximately $5,000 per hour. This, however, was a drop in the ocean compared to the daily $9 billion global trade loss occasioned by the blockage.
High Horsepower
Modern tugs are generally fitted with engines of 5,000 to 12,000 horsepower, although some specialized tugs have considerably more than 20,000 horsepower. Damen Shipyards ASD 3212 model, for instance, is powered by two engines; the combined 10,500 horsepower provides a bollard pull of over 85 tons and performs complex towing tasks in narrow waterways.
The conventional tug's cruising speed is about 10 knots, and the high-horsepower tugs' towing speed may reach 12 to 14 knots. In offshore oil platform relocation tasks where the towing distance is more than 500 kilometers, the high-horsepower tugs save 10% to 20% more time compared to the conventional ones. Discover more about powerful tugs in .
High-horsepower tug engines can last over 100,000 hours. Optimized cooling systems and fuel management technology reduce engine wear during intensive operations. For instance, the MTU 16V 4000 series engine consumes only 180 liters of fuel per hour, saving over 15% in energy compared to traditional engines.
During the 2008 North Sea incident, a 12,500-horsepower ocean-going tug successfully towed a 200,000-ton drilling platform to safety amidst wind speeds of up to 50 knots. The operation lasted 48 hours.
360-Degree Maneuverability
Tugs with 360-degree maneuverability perform very well in narrow waterways and complicated environments. This capability depends mainly on azimuth thrusters and Voith-Schneider propellers. A tug fitted out with twin-directional azimuth thrusters can achieve a turning circle of less than 50 meters, whereas conventional vessels of the same size need more than 200 meters.
The ability to maneuver 360° greatly enhances efficiency in port operations. At the Port of Los Angeles, for example, high-mobility tugs help giant cargo vessels dock. It cut the average operation time from 4 hours down to 2.5 hours, a 30-40% reduction, saving up to $5,000 per vessel a day. Learn more about electric tug innovation in .
In the icy ports of the Baltic Sea, where ice thickness often reaches over 1 meter, Voith-Schneider propellers increase thrust efficiency by 15%-20% in low-speed operations.
In one incident related to the North Sea oil spill in 2019, a high-mobility tug managed to close the area of the spill within 1 hour and prevented further spreading. Whereas traditional tugs would take more than 3 hours, this high-mobility tug, at an approximate cost of US$800 per rescue hour, saved over US$100,000 in cleaning and environmental damage costs.
Multi-Purpose Capability
The modern tugs are employed not only in towing cargo ships and tankers but also in firefighting and icebreaking, along with rescue and environmental protection tasks. A multi-purpose tug can be fitted out with high-pressure fire pumps with a flow rate of 15,000 liters per minute capable of extinguishing fires on fully loaded cargo ships in the shortest time.
During icebreaking procedures, Russia deploys polar tugs with double-layer reinforced hulls and 100-ton traction systems that can break ice as thick as 2 meters at speeds up to 3 knots. In the year 2019 alone, more than 33 million tons of cargo passed through the ice via polar tugs, carrying cargoes worth many billions of dollars to and from every corner of the globe. Explore the benefits of tuggers in .
During the blockage of the Suez Canal in 2021, there were more than 10 tugs involved in towing, pushing, and salvaging. On average, tugs operate at a cost of US$3,000 per hour, while their work averted daily losses of US$9 billion.
During the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, multipurpose tugs fitted out with efficient oil recovery devices could gather up to 2,000 liters of oil-water mixture within an hour, recovering over 2 million liters of crude oil mixture and saving around 20-30% in cleanup costs.
Essential for Mega Vessels
The mega vessels of today's shipping world exceed the length of 400 meters and width of 60 meters. The container ships in the Triple-E series by Maersk can carry a maximum deadweight of 220,000 tons with capacities over 20,000 TEUs.
At the Suez Canal, for instance, where over 12% of global trade passes with over 20,000 vessels passing yearly, an 85-ton bollard pull tug can assist a 200,000-ton oil tanker in performing a turning operation in under 15 minutes. Learn how electric tuggers improve safety in .
The Port of Rotterdam handles more than 460 million tons of cargo annually, while the average berthing time for ultra-large vessels is 4 hours. Tugs reduce this time to 2.5 hours, saving shipowners approximately $3,000 per vessel based on an operating cost of $2,000 per hour.
Under strong wind or rapid current conditions, the mega vessels may face lateral forces over 200 tons. With a bollard pull of 100 tons, a tug with dual thrusters
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