Greece urgently needs to renew its ageing fleet of tug boats, which are among the oldest and least powerful in Europe, said the head of the Greek tug-owners union Pavlos Xiradakis in statements to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Sunday.
He said tug boat owners should be included in the Recovery and Resilience Facility programme, to finance the building of new ships that use more environmentally friendly fuels in Greek shipyards, as well as ships better able to cope with the latest trends as regards the increasing size of cruise and container ships.
According to Xiradakis, the country’s current fleet would be unable to perform to standard in a serious naval accident. The fleet of Greek-owned tugs currently numbers some 150 tug boats, of which 110 are in active service, with an average age of 33. The ship-owners’ union is in talks with the shipping ministry, he said, to include the sector in the Recovery Fund, as was done for ferry lines.
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
