Contract to build tug barge unit

Signal International, Mobile based shipyard with core business construction, repair, and conversion of offshore drilling rigs and vessels, has been awarded a contract by Kirby Ocean Transport Company of Houston, Texas, to build an articulated tug/barge (AT/B) unit with an option for an additional unit.

The AT/B vessel is comprised of a 20,000 DWT ocean bulk barge with a 4470 kW AT/B ocean tug. The barge will be outfitted with Ocean Tug & Barge Engineering’s Articouple connection. The tugboat will be built and classed to ABS Maltese Cross, +A1 Ocean Towing Service standards, as the yard states. The AT/B will transport dry-bulk commodities in United States coastwise trade.

The barge fabrication work will commence in the second quarter of 2011 at Signal’s state-of-the-art continuous flow manufacturing facility in Orange, Texas, which has 137 km2 of covered fabrication area. The first AT/B is scheduled to be completed in 14 months. The option AT/B can as per Signal be built in less than 12 months. This facility recently completed two of the world’s largest floating power generation barges within a 180-day production schedule.