Building tugboats has always been a strong feature of Nibulon, – an opinion

The industry publication supported the appeal of the Nibulon company regarding the tender for a tugboat for the Danube.

This is stated in the publication of the online publication “Mykolaiv – the city of shipbuilders”, which specializes in topics about modern Mykolaiv shipbuilding.

“We share the concerns of “Nibulon”, because since 2019 the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly demonstrated a biased attitude towards domestic shipbuilding, which was manifested both in administrative and political pressure and in the non-transparent conduct of tenders for ordering vessels,” the report says.

In particular, the publication emphasized that the construction of tugboats has always been a strong feature of “Nibulon”. In particular, the company’s shipyard built 44 new vessels in the period from 2014 to 2024.

“Nibulon” proposes the construction of a tugboat pr. 121M., of which 4 units had already been built before the full-scale invasion, and including the tugs of the previous project 121 – 7 units. The construction of tugs has always been a strong feature of the company. We can say that the shipyard was created for this purpose – and simultaneously with the modernization of production, the first tugs were built. “Nibulon” built 17 tugs of five different types, among which there are both mixed “river-sea” vessels and purely sea tugs,” the experts noted.

The tender documentation of the competitor – the Romanian shipyard S.C. SEVERNAV S.A – cites only three vessels as evidence of modern experience. One of them is a passenger river vessel, the second is a chemical tanker, and also a river pusher of the icebreaker type (in the original – River Push Boat & Ice Breaker).

“Theoretically, the third vessel could testify to the company’s experience in building vessels of this type. However, there is no information on the website about the construction of such a vessel. A frequent refusal for domestic shipbuilding enterprises, even if they have experience in building similar vessels, is the absence of the type of vessel specified in the tender in their portfolio. We hope that the tender committee will show the same principledness in this case,” the publication noted.

Recall that Nibulon appealed to the World Bank Group regarding the tender for a tugboat, which is being held by the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Sea Ports Administration”.