Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M)'s wholly owned subsidiary Keppel Singmarine has secured contracts from Jan De Nul Group to build three trailing suction hopper dredgers (TSHDs) with an estimated value US$74 million (S$100 million).
The first two dredgers are expected to be completed in 2H 2018 while construction of the third dredger will require a notice within six months from Jan De Nul to exercise the option for the dredger.
To be built to Jan De Nul's design, the dredgers will be able to dredge to a maximum depth of 27.6m, and have a hopper capacity of 3500 cu m. The two dredgers will be built to the requirements of classification society, Bureau Veritas, in Keppel Nantong Shipyard, a subsidiary of Keppel O&M.
"Across the group, we have undertaken a number of newbuild dredger projects as well as repairs for customers such as Jan De Nul,” Abu Bakar, Keppel Singmarine managing director, said.
A TSHD is mainly used for dredging loose and soft soils such as sand, gravel, silt or clay. The dredged material can be deposited on the seabed through bottom doors or discharged through a floating pipeline to shore and used for land reclamation.
"We need such compact dredgers for maintenance work, for coastal restoration and for a variety of land reclamation work around the world," Robby De Backer, Jan De Nul Group director of newbuilding department said.