IHC Merwede expands production capacity

 

Headlines

• Revenue for 1st half year of 2008: EUR 512 million. 54% up on first six months of 2007.
• Order book as at 30 June 2008: EUR 1.77 billion. + 30%.
• Net profit 1st half year of 2008: EUR 48 million. + 60%.
• Major expansion of production capacity

IHC Merwede can look back on an excellent first half year in 2008. The expansion of the company has continued and the financial results have increased to match. A further increase in revenue and results is expected for the second half year of 2008.

President Govert Hamers: 'At the end of the first six months of 2008, we had an order book of € 1.77 billion. The ongoing expansion of our company can also be seen in the number of orders. I expect the order book to be even larger at the end of this year. Given this growth, we are working hard on expanding production capacity.

''An important step in the process of expanding our production capacity is the establishment of International Dredgers Heusden (IDH). The goal of IDH is to build ships at appropriate locations outside our own yards, with IHC Merwede being responsible. The sales, design and calculation for the assignments will be done by IHC Merwede. IDH will be responsible for implementing the assignment.'

Another major step in this process is the investment in a new machine factory for strategic dredger parts in Guangzhou in southern China. IHC Merwede already has a factory there for supplying parts. The expansion in activities means that we must invest in this new factory measuring 35,000m². The Rotterdam councillor, Mark Harbers (economy, harbour and the environment) will open the new factory on 3 November of this year.

The new factory emphasises the importance of the Chinese market for IHC Merwede. Specially for China, IHC Merwede has developed stationary cutter suction dredgers of the IHC 7025MP® and IHC 8527MP® types, and the vessels are also being built in China. This activity is expanding to such an extent that IHC Merwede recently entered into a joint venture with a Chinese ship yard in Dalian to respond effectively to this market flow. The joint venture is known as the IHC (Dalian) Dredging Vessel Technology Development Company Ltd. The same yard in Dalian will also be building four split barges for Van Oord on behalf of IHC Merwede.

Alongside production capacity, IHC Merwede also has its own service centre in China, in Tanggu, with service engineers trained in China, our own warehouse for spare parts and a mobile training centre with a simulator for training dredger operators. There was already a service centre in Tianjin.

In Belgrado, IHC Merwede has outsourced the building of hulls for the standard cutter suction dredgers of the Beaver type to a local yard. Govert Hamers: 'In time, we want to enter into a collaboration agreement with the yard for the construction of complete medium-sized Beaver cutter suction dredgers. I wouldn't want to rule out the possibility that we may even be building (small) trailing suction hopper dredgers there.'

Section construction started at the Heusden location (otherwise known as VSH, the Verenigde Scheepswerf Heusden) a year ago. Four orders have now been received by Heusden for the construction of small or medium-sized dredging vessels.

The investments at the Krimpen aan den IJssel site are reaching the final stages. The work on the completion quay and the panel line is in full swing and IHC Merwede in Krimpen aan den IJssel will soon have a compact, complete and competitive yard for the construction of complex vessels up to 38m wide.

Finally, we are looking throughout the entire company for additional ways of reducing throughput times in order to enhance production capacity further.

Profile
IHC Merwede is focused on the continuous development of its design and construction activities for the specialised shipbuilding sector, in particular the dredging and offshore industries.
IHC Merwede is world market leader in the construction of specialist dredging equipment and complex custom-built offshore vessels. The clients of IHC Merwede include major dredging companies, oil and gas exploration groups, offshore contractors and government authorities.
IHC Merwede has a staff of approximately 2,800 at its locations in the Netherlands. There are also branches in China, India, the Middle East, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.

Note for the editor, not for publication
For more information, please contact:

IHC Merwede B.V.
Mr G.L.M. Hamers, President
T    +31 184 43 61 90

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