Fielding a twelve-strong fleet of tugs, workboats, multi-role vessels and barges, we offer a range of services to the UK’s marine industry, from personnel transfers, workboat agency and shipwright services to aids to navigation support and stores deliveries.
Working alongside Peel Ports, our four harbour tugs are contracted to carry out all towage services required on the Manchester Ship Canal.
View vesselsHighly manoeuvrable, shallow drafted vessels often used for anchor handling, towage, construction support, buoy handling, dredging or diving support and stores deliveries.
View vesselsFlat top work platforms typically used to support civil engineering works. Generally offered with spud legs.
View vesselsA successful and ambitious family business, since 1971 Carmet has owned and operated tugs and workboats from its base on the River Mersey. Supporting the marine sector, our services range from harbour towage and stores delivery to vessel charter for all manner of projects.
Supporting a wide variety of organisations, we’ve completed countless successful towage contracts around the UK and on the Continent. The craft being towed include cutter suction, bucket and back-hoe dredgers, jack-up rigs, floating cranes, flat top barges with a variety of heavy lifts on board, fish farms, new built ships and pipelines. All were delivered to their destination with the minimum of delay and often in adverse weather conditions.
Over the years, we’ve also supplied small vessels to the marine civil engineering and dredging sector, assisting in the building or demolishing of jetties, bridges, piers and harbours. Indeed, throughout that time, our robust and flexible multi-role craft have proved invaluable for all manner of tasks, from personnel carrying and survey work to diving support, sea bed levelling and barge handling.
Whilst the original partnership of Captains Mick Carrier and Ian Metcalfe parted ways in 1986, since then the company has gone from strength to strength under the sole ownership of the Metcalfe family.
In 1989 Carmet took over as sole towage contractor for the Manchester Ship Canal, operating a system which ensures that two tugs are always available on a 24/7 basis. Since then it’s generally agreed that both the standard of service and the condition of the tugs have improved greatly.
In recent years our coastal towing operations have ceased, the company choosing to focus its efforts upon its harbour towage and workboat operations. Operating in Liverpool, Birkenhead, the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, Carmet proudly retains its ‘family company’ status to this day.