Exceptional Year for Van Oord

The year 2014 was exceptional in many ways, Van Oord, a Dutch contracting company that specializes in dredging and land reclamation, announced today. From a financial perspective, Van Oord achieved a record turnover of EUR 2.104 billion (2013: EUR 1.641 billion). It is the first time in the company’s history that its turnover has exceeded EUR 2 billion. 

This year, with the award of the Gemini project (EUR 1.3 billion in turnover), Van Oord became one of the major players in the European offshore wind industry. Van Oord’s turnover was not the only thing that broke records: its order portfolio was well-filled, and was valued at EUR 3.222 billion at year-end 2014 (2013: EUR 1.944 billion).

The net profit for 2014 amounted to EUR 119 million (2013: EUR 130 million; the profit for 2013 was considerably influenced by settlements reached on outstanding claims that arose in the Dubai era).

Pieter van Oord, CEO Van Oord, said: “This strategy is aimed at both strengthening and investing in our position in our existing main activities. In addition to the investments in new vessels, the acquisitions of J.T. Mackley & Co. (United Kingdom), the staff and equipment from Ballast Nedam Offshore, and all of the shares in Dravo S.A. (Spain) in 2014 fit right into this strategy.”

Dredging

The dredging market remained reasonably stable last year. The occupancy rate of the trailing suction hopper dredgers was lower in 2014 than it was in 2013, but the occupancy rate of the cutter suction dredgers was substantially higher than it was in 2013.

Pieter van Oord said: “Despite less-than-ideal market conditions, we managed to secure quite a large number of orders in 2014. Our order portfolio is well-filled for 2015, and vessel occupancy rate is at satisfactory levels. Some of the more prestigious projects are the KNPC land reclamation project in Kuwait, the dredging of a canal that will run parallel to the Suez Canal, and the construction of a large new island near Jakarta, Indonesia, which will give that rapidly growing city room to expand. Most of the work on these three projects will actually be carried out in 2015.”

Investment program

According to Van Oord’s 2013-2018 Strategic Plan, the company will be investing more than EUR 1 billion in building new vessels and modernizing and replacing the fleet. In 2014, this investment included an order for a new fallpipe vessel, Bravenes, which is currently being built by the Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group Shanghai at its shipyard in Ningbo, China.

Two trailing suction hopper dredgers are also being developed and have been ordered; these vessels are now under construction at the LaNaval shipyard in Spain. The offshore wind division was also strengthened by the acquisition of the staff and equipment from Ballast Nedam Offshore.

Investments made earlier also paid off in 2014, with events such as the successful introduction of the Aeolus, a vessel designed for offshore and wind projects, and the construction of the Nexus, the cable-laying vessel that was launched on 7 March 2015.