The specifically developed ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene Plasma (HMPE) ropes will be the largest used on-board escort tugs in Australia. They will be deployed in Port Hedland, Western Australia with the first tug due in late 2016.

ASL is currently building six escort tugs for BHP Billiton’s Iron Ore Operations at the world’s largest bulk tonnage export port and each will be fitted with high performance Plasma 12x12 packages manufactured by Cortland.

Cortland has also been awarded the cyclone mooring lines package, which includes installation and fabrication of all mooring lines on-site in Port Hedland when the tug fleet arrives.

Mike Fitzpatrick, Cortland Australia Sales Leader, said: “We’re proud to provide technical advice and supply high-quality ropes for use in a location as strategically important as Port Hedland.

“Our packages of HMPE ropes, equipment and on-site support will complement the state-of-the-art tugs built by ASL Shipyards and we are extremely excited to be involved with this project.

“The port has high vessel traffic and compact harbour channels, making speed and accuracy crucial. The products we manufacture and supply must be highly reliable, suit the purpose of the winches on board the tugs and meet all industry specifications”.

Cortland will supply LoCo Plasma 12x12 mainlines, LoCo Plasma 12x12 intermediate working lines and lightweight LoCo Plasma 12x12 grommet lines.

In addition to manufacturing custom mooring lines, Cortland has engineering capabilities to perform mooring line analysis which becomes crucial when working in the cyclone regions of Australia.

The six vessels under construction are Robert Allan Naval Architects and Marine Engineering designed RAstar escort class tugs with top of the range render/recover Markey Machinery DESF-48 winches.

Port Hedland has become the world’s largest volume port for exporting bulk materials, handling around 370 million tonnes per annum.