Caterpillar Marine Power Systems Secures Chinese Waterways

For worldwide release: November 27, 2007

Release Number: M12PR07

Hamburg, Germany – When you call the police, you expect an immediate response, regardless of where you are, but in Hong Kong, in the P. R. China, those who keep the peace face the added challenge of a vast harbour area to secure. To ease daily police water patrols, 17 new 19-metre patrol boats have been built with powerful, triple Cat^® C32 marine engines. Caterpillar^® dealer Capital Machinery Ltd., Taiwan, clinched the deal in cooperation with Caterpillar Marine Asia Pacific’s regional headquarters in Shanghai, in the P. R. China.

In 2006, Hong Kong Government Dockyard and Hong Kong Marine Police decided to replace an existing fleet of 25-metre patrol boats operating in the Hong Kong harbour area. Powered by competitor-brand engines, their speed is limited to only 25 knots. Now, thanks to the advanced 19-metre patrol boat design from Taiwan’s Lung-Teh Shipbuilding Co. and the excellent power-to-weight ratio of their Cat C32 marine engines, the new boats reach a top speed of 45 knots. Three C32s, rated 820 kW at 2100 rpm each, propel the vessels via Hamilton Jet impellers. In total, this deal comprises 51 C32 marine engines plus another 6 spare engine.

The Hong Kong Marine Police plans to complete the fleet exchange inside two years. The first of new design prototypes underwent its sea trials in Taiwan in July 2007. A first batch of six boats is due to start operating in Hong Kong in November 2007. Capital Machinery Ltd. of Taiwan is co-operating with servicing dealer China Engineers Ltd. of Hong Kong to ensure that the sea trials of boats and C32 engines are carried out correctly and that comprehensive customer support is available when needed.

Kody Chan, Manager Dealer Development for Caterpillar Marine Asia Pacific in Shanghai commented: “We are very excited about this deal. Hong Kong Government Dockyard is one of the most important governmental customers in our region. In addition, this project is a great opportunity to highlight the performance benchmarks established with the Cat C-series of electronically controlled, high-speed marine engines.”

Underlining the excellent relationship between governmental marine authorities and Caterpillar Marine Asia Pacific are a couple of further projects for Cat-powered patrol craft in China. The engines involved are Cat C30, Cat C32, Cat 3512 and Cat 3516. One recent success has been with China’s Maritime Safety Administration in the 60-metre Class A and B patrol boat design, utilising well-known Cat 3500 series marine engines. Both designs rely on steel hulls with an aluminium super-structure and are built according to China Classification Society (CCS) rules. Caterpillar dealer China Engineers Ltd., together with Caterpillar Marine Asia Pacific, secured the deal for four A Class and two B Class vessels against stiff competition.

The new A Class patrol boats have an overall length of 61.2 metres, a beam of 9.2 metres and draughts of 4.5 metres. Their propulsion systems consist of two Cat 3516C main engines, driving propellers via ZF 7650 reduction gearboxes. With maximum engine output of 2525 kW at 1800 rpm the vessels reach a top speed of 21.5 knots. The slightly larger B Class patrol boats are of 64 metres length with a beam of 10.2 metres and a draught of 5 metres. Their propulsion system comprises a pair of Cat 3512C engines, rated 1765 kW at 1800 rpm each, and ZF 7541 gearboxes providing a service speed of 18 knots. China’s Maritime safety Administration will use both kinds of boats for coastal patrol duties including the coordination of rescue operations, emergency evacuation and recovery of survivors.

The Maritime Safety Administration already operates 12 Cat-powered patrol craft in the 30-metre range, three of which equipped with twin Cat C30 marine engines rated 1119 kW at 2300 rpm and nine of which equipped with twin Cat C32 marine engines rated 1045 kW at 2300 rpm. These vessels have an overall length of 33.2 metres and a beam of 6 metres. With their hull made from steel and aluminium, the maximum speed reaches 22 knots.

Caterpillar Marine is proud to be part of providing rapid response to maritime emergencies – regardless of where they take place. Patrol craft, surveillance boats and emergency response vessels operate world-wide and many of them are powered by Cat or MaK marine engines. And Kody Chan is confident that Caterpillar will further increase its market share in this segment: “We have a great product, the right organisation and trusted customer relationships so strong growth for Caterpillar Marine Asia Pacific in the foreseeable future seems almost inevitable.”

About Caterpillar Marine Power Systems
Caterpillar Marine Power Systems, with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, brings together all the sales and service activities for Cat and MaK branded marine products within Caterpillar Inc. This organization provides premier marine power solutions (high and medium speed with outputs from 11 kW to 16,000 kW) and customer service from a single source for the global ocean-going, commercial and pleasure craft markets. The Caterpillar Marine Power Systems sales and service network includes more than 2,100 dealer locations world-wide and is well positioned to support customers wherever they are.

More information is available at www.cat-marine.com or www.mak-global.com.

About Caterpillar
For more than 80 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making progress possible and driving positive and sustainable change on every continent. With 2006 sales and revenues of $41.517 billion, Caterpillar is a technology leader and the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, clean diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines.

More information is available at www.cat.com.

CAT, CATERPILLAR, their respective logos, “Caterpillar Yellow” and the POWER EDGE trade dress, as well as corporate and product identity used herein, are trademarks of Caterpillar and may not be used without permission.  

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