ONEX Group: Greece a leader again in tugboat shipbuilding, with innovation and strategy
Piraeus, June 24, 2025
With great success, the 1st Conference of the Hellenic Union of Tugboat, Salvage, Anti-Pollution, and Offshore Support Vessel Owners was held yesterday at the Stone Warehouse of PPA (Piraeus Port Authority). The conference, titled “Safety and Development in Greek Seas”, opened a new dialogue on the prospects of a highly specialized and strategically important sector of Greek shipping.
Panos Xenokostas, Chairman and CEO of ONEX Shipyards & Technologies and President of the Hellenic Shipyards Association, participated in the opening session of the conference on “The role of tugboats in today’s port challenges.” Joining him were Mr. Pavlos Xiradakis, President of the Union, Mr. Thanos Liagos, former President of ELIME (Hellenic Ports Association), and Mr. Georgios Kamilos, Piraeus Pilot, Senior Captain of the Merchant Navy. Mr. Xenokostas presented ONEX Group’s vision and initiatives for the revival of the Greek shipbuilding industry, spearheaded by the tugboat sector.
As he emphasized, ONEX has strategically invested in the revival of the Syros and Elefsis Shipyards, transforming them from inactive facilities into modern ship repair and shipbuilding centers. “At ONEX Group we envision, we design, we implement. We have proven in practice that what we envision and announce — despite adversity — we can accomplish and bring to fruition. Recently, we celebrated the repair of the 700th vessel at our facilities; today we have reached 720 vessels. This is a significant milestone that marks not just a numerical target but confirms that Greece can — once again — be a leader in ship repair. If we consider only ONEX’s ship repair sector, which amounts to around 125 million euros for 2024–2025, we are talking about an impact of around 1 billion euros on the country’s GDP, hundreds of saved jobs, and thousands of new ones being created,” he noted.
New-generation tugboats with Greek signature
Continuing his address, Mr. Xenokostas extensively outlined ONEX Group’s expertise and production capacity to fully meet the needs of Greek shipping with vessels of Greek construction, competitive in cost and quality.
Referring to the scheduled production of 20 RAstar 2800 Escort/Terminal Tugboats, Panos Xenokostas explained: “We did not randomly choose to start with tugboats. On the one hand, the Presidential Decree of 2023 and the support of the competent Ministry for new shipbuilding projects that will upgrade port infrastructure, and on the other hand the controlled risk associated with tugboats, gave us the opportunity to start in the newbuild sector and safely create a model that is now moving forward and is very practical: We have the exclusive agreement with Robert Allan Ltd for design in Greece and Cyprus; we have already agreed and made down payments for the first 20 sets of top-tier engines from MAN Energy Solutions SE, and likewise for the first 20 sets of azimuth thrusters (Z-thrusters) under our agreement with the leading company SCHOTTEL GmbH, thus creating a powerful, top-quality, and reliable propulsion system.”
Completing the design phase, the first tugboat steel cutting will take place in November 2025, and the construction time of the first tugboat will be less than 12 months, with each subsequent tugboat delivered at two-month intervals. The market’s need for operational superiority, economy, and modernization was confirmed by the strong interest, as we have already received the first two orders from a Greek-owned shipping company.
“The most important thing, however, is that the construction of the new tugboats has once again brought to the forefront not only our Group but also our country as a producer of new, state-of-the-art ships. The relationship of our shipyards with the tugboat sector is close and mutually beneficial; it is part of the ecosystem and the shipping sector that brings revenue to our country while creating new jobs,” Mr. Xenokostas emphasized.
Steady investment with prospects
As an entrepreneur who has invested significantly in Greek shipping, Panos Xenokostas shared his views on the prospects of the tugboat sector in Greece and ONEX Group’s plans: “We have prepared a complete customer experience, bearing the signature of the world’s largest design house, Robert Allan Naval Architects. RAstar 2800 series vessels, 28.4 meters long with 85T bollard pull — the highest in their class — can operate in LNG & LPG environments as well as in extremely demanding and varied operations, whenever, wherever, and for as long as needed,” said the Chairman and CEO of ONEX, adding: “We offer a comprehensive solution and have already prepared the appropriate financing tool for our customers, either through ownership or the Performance Based Logistics model to support them in their transition. We offer a highly competitive product, which is why there is strong demand not only from customers but also from internationally renowned brokers. We are optimistic that within 2026 we will be able to expand the production line to another 20 tugboats, highlighting the importance of tugboats in realizing investment opportunities.”
