Istanbul: Turkish shipyard Uzmar Workboat and Tug Factory has completed six of eight shallow-draft river push boats on order for use on inland waterways in South America.
All eight vessels will be delivered this quarter to client Hidrovias do Brasil, which specialises in the river transport of iron ore and is a subcontractor for Brazilian miner Vale.
The vessels will be used on inland waterways from Colombia in Brazil to Argentina and/or Uruguay through the Paraguay-Parana waterway, Uzmar says. The flotillas will consist of one push-boat pushing 16 barges, with a total capacity of 40,000 dwt.
“The total distance is over 2500km, much of it navigating through extremely curvy river sections, which make excellent manoeuvrability a necessity,” Uzmar says. Because of this, the vessels have been built with a crash-stop requirement of 2.5 flotilla lengths.
Canadian naval architecture firm Robert Allan Ltd designed the vessels, which will all fly the flag of Paraguay.
Each vessel is 45.6 metres in LOA, 16.5 metres in breadth with a draft of 2.1 metres.
“The main concern of the ship operator were shorter river voyage times with sophisticated power management technology, shallow draft with increased deadweight of speed, improved sea-going ability, increased crew comfort, higher escort force performance, high-propulsion technology, greater endurance, low emissions and low fuel consumption,” Uzmar says of the order.
The push boats will run on heavy fuel oil (HFO), with the ability to operate on marine diesel oil, if necessary.
Hidrovias do Brasil placed its order with the yard in 2013.
