Tug Malta to buy new vessels and revise rates

Tug Malta is to invest almost Lm4 million to replace part of its fleet with two new vessels which should lead to an improvement in the service it offers, Austin Gatt, Minister for Investment, Industry and Information Technology said yesterday.

Dr Gatt said the Cabinet had decided that Tug Malta should revise its rates for the first time in 14 years in order to maintain the company's financial sustainability. Even with the revised rates, Dr Gatt said, Tug Malta will still offer the lowest rates in the region for towage. Its rates will still be more competitive than those in Barcelona, Genoa, Gioia Tauro, La Spezia, Larnaca, Limassol, Livorno, St Louis du Rhone, Marseilles, Piraeus, Salerno and Valencia.

Dr Gatt said new "preferential rates" are to be offered to Tug Malta's best clients, such as Malta Shipyards. He said the government had decided to ask the Malta Maritime Authority to define port towage services as "an essential economic service" according to European law. This, he said, would help secure the company's long-term viability.

The minister said Tug Malta needed a strategic partner in order to branch out into offshore towage, including salvage operations.