• The state-of-the-art vessel arrived from Turkey to strengthen the company’s services in Chile.

SAAM Towage continues to expand its fleet, this time in Chile.
A new tug docked in Valparaíso and is getting ready to provide services.

“This new vessel is very symbolic, since it will be called Halcón III. Its predecessor (Halcón I) had a single shaft and was one of the first tugs to start operating at SAAM. Today, almost 60 years later, we can see how technology has advanced at the service of foreign trade. We now have a state-of-the-art unit that will enable us to continue efficiently and safely supporting maneuvers at domestic ports,” explained SAAM Towage Chile Country Manager, Cristián Cifuentes.

This is the company’s fourth RA2400SX-series tug acquired from the Turkish ship yard SANMAR over the past three years. The powerful vessel has a compact design that is particularly useful in ports with restricted maneuverability.

Measuring 24.4 long and 11.25 wide, the tug features bollard pull of 70 tons and a maximum speed of 13 knots. The vessel is powered by two Caterpillar 3516C main engines, each achieving 2,100 kW at 1,600 rev/min. The Halcón III is a sister ship to the Albatros, which operates in Peru, and is the same series as the SAAM Valparaíso and the SAAM Palenque operating in Panama.

SAAM Towage is the leading provider of towage services in the Americas and the third largest worldwide. It has a fleet of 180 tugs operating at 80 ports in the Americas, and completes over 100,000 maneuvers for around 37,000 vessels per year.