Photo: Harmony Marine Shipbrokers
Environmental requirements are affecting tug availability, pricing, newbuild deliveries and overall market drivers
It has been a bumper period for newbuild sales and deliveries, with shipyards busy year-round with tugboat construction work, with early indications this is continuing in 2025. Rising demand, high fleet utilisation and changing environmental requirements are all influencing owners’ decisions to modernise and expand their fleets.
In 2024, 348 tugs were delivered according to data aggregated and analysed by International Tug & Salvage, up from just over 300 identified in 2023. Of these 2024 deliveries, 25% were built in China, highlighting its dominance in tugboat construction, 16% in Turkey, 13% in the US, another 13% in Malaysia, and 10% in Vietnam, with other tug-building countries being Brazil, India, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea and Spain.
US shipyards mainly build for the internal market due to the Jones Act requirements, while a large portion of Chinese-built tugs are for domestic ports, although a sizeable number are exported worldwide, primarily by Damen Shipyards and Cheoy Lee Shipyards. Damen also builds tugs in Vietnam with the majority exported. Turkey is the second-largest tug-building nation, with at least three major owners building for their own stocks, other domestic owners and for export.
Tight availability
High tugboat demand worldwide means there is a limited number of vessels for sale and the market remains tight. Despite the plethora of newbuild deliveries into the market in the last five years, there remains a shortage of secondhand tugs available to purchase.According to Marcon International, 244 tugs were for sale worldwide in November 2024, of the global fleet of 5,138, down 24 from November 2023 and down by 354 tugs, or 59% from five years earlier. The sharpest falls are in tug availability in the US and across Asia.
The lack of available tonnage is driving up prices, while owners may need to modernise or repower these tugs, with the costs difficult to justify; leading to many owners turning to shipyards for newbuilds instead.“The market faces several challenges, including high repowering costs, tight supply of desirable vessels and the complexities of transitioning to new propulsion technologies,” says Marcon. “Meanwhile, the push for decarbonisation is driving fleet renewal among operators with larger budgets, creating opportunities for shipyards specialising in electric and hybrid tug designs.”
In this evolving landscape, environmental considerations are increasingly shaping tug availability, pricing and overall market trends. Of the available 244 tugs, there were 76 in the US (or 32% of the total), 32 in the Far East (13%), 30 in Europe (12%), 25 in southeast Asia (10%), 22 in the Mediterranean (9%), 15 in Latin America (6%), 14 in South Pacific (6%), 10 in the Middle East (4%), 10 in the Caribbean (4%) and 10 across the rest of the world (4%).In terms of machinery, there is broad diversity, but 29% of tugs for sale have Caterpillar diesel engines, followed by EMD, Niigata and Cummins engines.
Age and scrapping
Of the available tugs, 43 vessels (18% of the total) are over 50 years of age, including two more than 75 years old, and 26 tugs (11%) were built within the last 10 years, including three newbuilding azimuth stern drive (ASD) tug newbuild resales currently under construction.Of the tugs Marcon lists for sale, 67% have conventional twin-screw propulsion, 20% are ASD vessels, 8% single-screw tugs and 4% are Voith Schneider tractors.With high modernisation and repower costs, owners are removing older or poorly maintained vessels from the market through recycling.
According to Sea-Web, as of November 2024, 2,418 tugs worldwide were reported as scuttled, broken up, or slated for demolition, a 1% increase from the 2,384 tugs reported in November 2023. There has been a 59% rise in the number of tugs scrapped since 2019, with a significant portion removed from the market in 2021 and 2022, indicating a peak in scrapping activity, and the rate has slowed since then.
Source : Riviera Maritime Media / Martyn Wingrove
