SAAM Towage Expands Fleet with Environmentally Friendly Tugboats

Chile-headquartered towage services provider SAAM Towage has decided to add two more environmentally friendly units to its roster for service in Chile and Peru.

As disclosed, the vessels in question are a duo of 24.4 meters long and 12 meters wide tugboats, named SAAM Petrel and the SAAM Charrán. The ships were designed by Canada-based naval architecture firm Robert Allan and built at the Sanmar shipyard in Türkiye.

According to SAAM Towage, each of the tugs has a bollard pull of 80 metric tons and a maximum speed of 13 knots. They are powered by 2,350 kW Caterpillar engines.

At the present moment, the 2024-built SAAM Petrel is reportedly on its way to the Port of Arica in Chile. The Panama-flagged newbuild is said to be compliant with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) nitrogen oxide (NOx) Tier III emission guidelines. Representatives from SAAM Towage have shared that this makes the vessel “the first in Chile” to boast such features.

On the other hand, the SAAM Charrán, which was constructed in 2023, is planned to operate at the Port of Callao in Peru, where the unit has already docked.

The acquisition of these tugboats, per Chile-Peru Country Manager Cristián Cifuentes, is an ‘important’ part of SAAM Towage’s investment plan focused on optimizing the company’s operational capacity as well as on ‘bolstering’ its presence in both Latin American countries.

What is more, adding the new vessels to its fleet is in line with SAAM Towage’s 2030 Sustainability Strategy, unveiled at the beginning of December last year.

As previously reported, the overarching goals of this vision are owning a fleet of fully sustainable-propulsion tugs, neutralizing 65% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions via reduction and offsetting initiatives (with 2021 as the baseline), and certifying all operations under quality and environmental management standards.

To remind, SAAM Towage and Chile’s state-owned company Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (Enap) marked the launch of what is hailed as Latin America’s first electric tug at the beginning of December 2024.

The 25-meter-long unit was also constructed by Sanmar Shipyards. By the end of May 2025, following sea trials and bollard pull testing, the ship embarked on a journey to Chile, where it was finally christened as Trapananda in mid-July.