Admiral Osama Rabie, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, and Admiral Ashraf Attwa, Chief of the Egyptian Navy, attended today (Sunday) the launching ceremony of the salvage tug “Ismailia-1” at Alexandria Shipyard. This is the most advanced and largest salvage tug in the Middle East, with a bollard pull capacity of 190 tons, built for the Suez Canal Authority.
The event was attended by a high-level delegation including Admiral Ahmed Khaled Said, Governor of Alexandria; Major General Mokhtar Abdel Latif, Chairman of the Arab Organization for Industrialization; Major General Hesham Hosni Hassan, Commander of the Northern Military Zone; Dr. Abdelaziz Konsowa, President of Alexandria University; and Dr. Ismail Abdel Ghaffar, President of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport.

They were hosted by Rear Admiral Hossam El-Din Kotb, Chairman of Alexandria Shipyard, along with members of the Authority’s Board of Directors, company leadership, and employees.

This event comes as a culmination of the fruitful cooperation between both sides, and in implementation of the contract signed between the Suez Canal Authority and Alexandria Shipyard to build two salvage tugboats with a bollard pull of 190 tons each. The two vessels share the same technical specifications: a length of 71.6 meters, a beam of 18.5 meters, a 7-meter draft, and a top speed of 16 knots.

The ceremony began with a recitation from the Holy Qur’an, followed by a welcome speech by Rear Admiral Hossam El-Din Kotb, Chairman of Alexandria Shipyard. He expressed his pride in this unprecedented achievement in the history of shipbuilding in Egypt and the Middle East, stating that this milestone is a global endorsement of Egypt’s emerging shipbuilding industry and a testament that Alexandria Shipyard is taking the “Made in Egypt” mark to the world stage.

This was followed by a speech from Admiral Osama Rabie, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, who emphasized that the cooperation with Alexandria Shipyard reflects the success of strategic partnerships between national institutions in fulfilling presidential directives to localize marine industries.
He added that the Authority has diligently pursued this direction through serious work on three levels:
* Enhancing the shipbuilding and marine unit production within the Authority’s shipyards and companies.
* Promoting partnerships with national entities such as the Marine Industries and Services Organization.
* Establishing collaborations with the private sector in parallel.
Amiral Rabie stressed that the Suez Canal Authority’s maritime fleet has witnessed an unprecedented transformation, the most significant in the past 30 years, by adding 30 new tugboats of various models with bollard pull capacities ranging from 9 to 190 tons.
He pointed out that the newly launched tug is the largest and most advanced addition in the Authority’s history. It features superior bollard pull capacity, exceeding that of any existing rescue tug in the fleet. It is also equipped with a Dynamic Positioning (DP) system for enhanced maneuverability when operating with external units, and an SCR system to reduce carbon emissions from exhaust gases.

At the conclusion of his speech, Admiral Rabie expressed deep appreciation to Alexandria Shipyard for their exceptional efforts in making this major project a success.
After the ceremony, Admiral Osama Rabie, Admiral Ashraf Attwa, and Rear Admiral Hossam Kotb toured the main construction yard of Alexandria Shipyard to inspect the progress on the second tugboat, “Ismailia-2”, which is also being built for the Authority. The hull construction has been completed, and mechanical, electrical, and piping works are underway in preparation for its upcoming launch.