SAAM Towage inked a shipbuilding contract with Chile’s ASENAV for the delivery of a new 32-m escort tug that will have an estimated bollard pull of more than 80 tonnes.

A signing ceremony for the Robert Allan Ltd-designed RAstar 3200W was held at ASENAV’s exhibition stand at ITS 2026 in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 20 May. The contract signing ceremony was one of a half dozen announced during the exhibition, indicating that demand for powerful tugs remains strong.

Once delivered, Hull 196 will be operated by SAAM Towage to provide escort tug services in Canada.

This contract is the second signed by the parties for a RAstar 3200W escort tug in 2026. Under the previous contract announced in January, ASENAV will deliver a sister tug, Hull 198, from its shipyard in Valdivia, Chile, by the first half of 2027. It will be equipped with a constant-tension winch for escort operations and a firefighting system rated Fire-Fighting Class 1.

To comply with IMO Tier III regulations, the escort tug will integrate an advanced exhaust gas treatment system with its main diesel engines to eliminate NOx emissions.

In a social media post, the Chilean shipbuilder and ship designer said the latest contract was “a meaningful step in ASENAV’s speculative building strategy,” adding it plans to design and construct “high-performance tugs ahead of demand and finding in operators like SAAM the right partners to bring them into service around the world.”

Headquartered in Santiago, Chile, SAAM Towage is a leading tug operator in the Americas, with a fleet of more than 200 tugs.