Boskalis adds Adelaide to bright order book

The contract, valued at some €40 million, was awarded last month by port owner and operator Flinders Ports, with works scheduled for the second half of this year.

Boskalis has been appointed to widen the shipping channel to 170m, up from its current 130m, and extend the turning basin to accommodate the larger and more efficient post-panamax container ships which increasingly dominate global containerised cargo transport. The expanded channel will also accommodate larger cruise ships to boost the tourist industry.

Some 1.5 million m3 of mostly sand and clay dredged material will be removed by a Boskalis trailing suction hopper dredger and a large backhoe dredger.

Flinders Port and Boskalis are committed to minimising the environmental impact of the channel widening programme whilst maximising the ongoing health of the marine environment in line with the strict requirements of the Environment Protection Authority dredging license. The dredged material will be placed in a designated area 30km offshore with the aid of environmental management techniques to ensure that maximum permitted turbidity levels are not exceeded.

Boskalis has posted a lower result for 2018 in line with expectations. Net operating profit fell from €150 million in 2017 to €83 million last year, mainly due to a sharp decline for the Offshore Energy division. Market conditions also deteriorated for Harbour Towage activities, mainly as a result of consolidation among the large container shipping companies.

Dredging and Inland Infrastructure, however, had a relatively stable year. A number of large works were in progress in countries including India and Oman, supplemented by a large number of medium sized projects, seeing both revenue and the result rising by 10%. Utilisation of both the hopper and cutter dredger fleets was slightly higher than for 2017. The margin was stable compared to 2017, with the usual combination of results from ongoing works and from the financial settlement of projects completed earlier. Boskalis managed to achieve a substantial increase in contracted work, boosting the order book at Dredging by more than 20% to over €3 billion.

By Larz Bourne