Svitzer has established a harbour towage service in the Port of Montreal providing ship-docking, escort and ice-breaking services in response to customer demand for alternatives.
Svitzer has mobilized two ice-class tugs to the Port of Montreal, Svitzer Nerthus and Svitzer Njal with a third tug arriving during mid-April. The tugs are 30m ASD tugs with 60tBP and 5000HP and were built at the East Isle Shipyard in Prince Edward Island in 2009. Following five years of service in Scandinavia, the vessels were mobilized to Canada for Svitzer’s northern operation in Baffin Island. In addition, Svitzer will mobilize additional tugs during the next 12-18 months providing full-year service in the St. Lawrence River.
Martin Helweg, managing Director of Svitzer Americas, highlights the significance of the entry. “Canada is one of our key growth markets in the Americas and we have expanded our operation in the country during the past few years. Montreal represents a great opportunity for our continued expansion and we have experienced a strong demand from our local and global customers-base to provide services within the St. Lawrence River.”
Jacob Abrahamsen, General Manager, Svitzer Canada summarizes the importance of the entry into the primary container shipping hub in Central Canada. “Establishing our presence in the Port of Montreal is not only a key milestone for Svitzer Canada but as well for the overall harbour towage market in Canada. The feedback from our customers has been remarkable as they are demanding towage alternatives and we will continue focus our efforts on expanding our footprint wherever our customers request operationally reliable and commercially transparent harbour towage service.”
Source: Svitzer