HC Merwede won orders for vessels and equipment in its core markets of dredging and offshore to the value of €200m. The latest agreements confirmed by IHC Merwede include: a new pipelaying vessel for Subsea 7; an engineering and components package for the build of a trailing suction hopper dredger with BAE Systems (USA); an environmentally friendly deep-water dredger for Zheijang Dredging (China); and a 5,000-tonne capacity carousel-lay system for Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. IHC Merwede’s assignment with Subsea 7 is for the design, engineering and construction of a new advanced pipelaying vessel, which will have an overall length of 146m, a beam of 30m and a Class-2 dynamic positioning system. Subsea 7 has selected IHC Merwede due to its reliability and efficiency with four previous orders. This latest vessel will be used to develop deep-sea oilfields off the coast of Brazil on behalf of Petrobras. In addition, IHC Merwede has been successful in securing an agreement for an engineering and components package with BAE Systems, which has been contracted to build a 6,540 cu. m. trailing suction hopper dredger for Weeks Marine, Inc., USA. IHC Merwede earlier supplied the basic design of the vessel – which will have a length of 109m and a beam of 24m – to Weeks Marine, Inc.
Furthermore, Chinese company, Zheijang Dredging, has ordered an advanced environmentally friendly deep-water dredging vessel. This innovative cutter suction dredger will be optimized to work in polluted lake and reservoir dredging projects, and is unique in its class. The Beaver 4040 is the first cutter suction dredger designed for sustainable dredging to a depth of 40m. This eco-friendly dredger will be built at the components factory of IHC China Support in
Guangzhou. Some of IHC Merwede’s business units have also acquired orders for specialist equipment, including a carousel-lay system for Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. The carousel features the IHC Engineering Business advanced hydraulic roller suspension system to increase reliability, reduce life-cycle costs and extend the lifetime of the system. The equipment will be manufactured, assembled and tested in IHC China Support’s components factory in Guangzou.