Ardent and Singapore Salvage Engineers announced on 13th February that they have formally partnered for future operations within Singapore and the adjacent waters. The two companies signed a co-operation agreement on the 19th January 2018 to closely work together on future opportunities and at the same time retain their own corporate identities. Today the group of companies owns and operates more than 50 support vessels. In May 2015, Svitzer Salvage, a part of the Maersk Group, and Titan Salvage, under the Crowley Group, merged to form Ardent. High profile projects for the company have included the Costa Concordia and the Hoegh Osaka.

Iskes Towage & Salvage based in IJmuiden, has taken delivery of two Damen ASD 2810 tugs. The vessels were built at Damen Song Cam Shipyards, Vietnam, and delivered last year to Damen Shipyards Gorinchem in The Netherlands, as part of the group’s strategy to position stock vessels for rapid availability in Europe. This on-demand availability was a significant factor in Damen winning the contract, with both tugs being delivered within two weeks of the contract being signed. Named Phoenix and Lynx, the 293gt/2018 built and 28m tugs are essentially standard versions of this best-selling model. They have a bollard pull of 60 tonnes, a top speed of 13 knots, and excellent manoeuvrability and seakeeping. These acquisitions mean that Iskes now owns and operates a total of nine Damen ASD tugs as part of a fleet of 18 vessels.