This came during Rabie’s inspection of the construction of new marine tugs for SCA at the Egypt Tugboat Factory in the South Red Sea Shipyard in Safaga.

These new vessels will operate as part of an integrated system for fishing, processing, and packaging fish, contributing to the modernization of Egypt's fishing fleet, Rabie said.

According to a statement issued by the SCA, the Egyptian fishing fleet is being modernized with two different models designed by the Spanish naval architecture and consultancy firm INSE NAVAL.

The first model is a fishing trawler, 50 metres long, 9.75 metres wide, and 4.9 metres deep, and will be supervised by the French BV certification authority.

The second model is a side trawler, also 50 metres long and 10 meters wide, with a draft of 4.2 metres. It will be supervised by the Italian RINA certification authority.

Egypt Tugboat Factory
 

Rabie’s visit also focused on evaluating the progress of the first production line at the Egypt Tugboat Factory, which involves the construction of 10 marine tugs named Azm, designed with the RAstar 3200-W model.

These tugs will have a towing capacity of 90 tons and be equipped with top-tier firefighting systems.

Rabie emphasized that the SCA has made significant strides towards fulfilling the leadership’s goal of localizing maritime industries and modernizing its fleet.

This includes the addition of 28 new tugs with varying towing capacities to meet operational needs within the Suez Canal’s navigational channels and for external operations.

Mostafa El-Degheishi, chairman of the South Red Sea Shipyard, confirmed that the construction of the new tugs is progressing rapidly according to the planned timeline.

“We expect to launch Azm 1 and Azm 2 in the first quarter of this year,” he said, with 90 and 80 percent completion rates, respectively.

He also noted that the Egypt Tugboat Factory has generated significant developmental and social value by creating over 700 job opportunities for workers and engineers since its establishment.

In April 2024, Egypt inaugurated the Tugboat Factory, a 9,000-square-metre facility with three divisions — cutting, forming, and building — specialized in producing various types of vessels.