HARBOR STAR SHIPPING’S NEW TUGBOAT CLEARED FOR REGISTRY
The request of Harbor Star Shipping Services, Inc. (HSSI) for the Philippine registry of its latest acquired tugboat, to be used for the marine service provider’s domestic expansion, has been given the nod by the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina).
In a regulatory disclosure, HSSI said Marina on January 18 approved the registry of MT Reda, a 40-ton, 2,956-BHP bollard pull tugboat that HSSI imported in 2016.
MT Reda is the third tugboat that HSSI imported in 2016, delivered December at the Port of Batangas. The other two are MT Draco, a 35-ton, 2,600-BHP bollard pull tugboat to be used for domestic operations, and MT Lucida, a 50-ton, 4,000-BHP bollard pull tugboat that is among the youngest and most powerful harbor tugboats in the country.
HSSI in September last year signed an agreement with Chailease International Financial Services Co. Ltd, a British Virgin Islands-based company, that gives it a credit facility to fund its operations and expansion plans.
HSSI said the credit facility will be used to fund its tug acquisition for its Philippine operations, with a portion of the facility to be allocated as working capital for its Malaysia subsidiary Peak Flag Sdn Bhd.
Late last year, HSSI was named as the provider of 150 barges of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in capacity for the new Cavite Gateway Terminal (CGT). The CGT will be constructed in Tanza, Cavite to handle containers between the Manila ports and the economic zone locators in the province.
With this latest acquisition, the marine service provider now manages 41 tugboats in the Philippines and Malaysia.