Jan De Nul Group is a family-owned company, originally from Belgium, with the financial headquarters in Luxembourg. Its four main activities are Offshore Energy, Dredging Solutions, Construction Projects and Planet Redevelopment.
The trailing suction hopper dredger Alexander von Humboldt
Founded in 1938, in Hofstade near Aalst, Belgium, Jan De Nul started as a construction company specialised in civil works and maritime construction. It was only in 1951 that the company entered into the dredging business. Recently it has forayed into offshore wind business and have been successful in securing major European wind energy projects.
At the end of 2023, Jan De Nul had 7491 employees and a yearly turnover of 2.9 billion euro.[1] Other major dredging companies are Dutch companies Royal Boskalis Westminster and Van Oord, and the Belgian DEME.[2]
Early 2025, Jan De Nul rebranded into World Builders, shaping water, land and energy. The focus of their new story is on the diversity of its activities and their social relevance as a solutions provider for challenges like the transition to renewable energy, soil and water pollution and coastline protection.
Jan De Nul was voted the most attractive employer in Belgium in 2008 and 2009.[3]
Fleet
Jan De Nul has a fleet of 95 vessels, including 29 trailing suction hopper dredgers, 12 cutter suction dredgers, 17 split hopper barges, 6 backhoe dredgers, 5 water injection dredgers, 5 offshore rock installation vessels, 3 multi-purpose offshore vessels , 2 offshore jack-up installation vessels, 3 cable installation vessels (with 2 more under construction),[4] 3 heavy lift vessels, and 1 oil recovery vessel.[5]
It also has a fleet of heavy equipment, including 77 dumptrucks, 191 tracked excavators, 32 tower cranes, 64 bulldozers, 71 wheel loaders and more.
Records
Largest hopper dredgers: TSHD 'Cristobal Colon' and 'Leiv Eiriksson', capacity of 46.000 m3, maximum dredging depth of 155 m[6]
Largest rock installation vessels: FPV 'Simon Stevin' and 'Joseph Plateau' with a capacity of 31500 tonnes, rock installation possible in depths of up to 2,000 m[7]
Largest cable laying vessel: CLV 'Isaac Newton', - combined turn table capacity of 12,400 tonnes[8] (2 even lager vessels are on order, the 'William Thompson' and 'Fleeming Jenkin', with a capacity of 29,500 tonnes, to be delivered in 2026[9])
Largest cutter dredger: CSD 'Willem Van Rubroeck' with a cutter capacity of 8,500 kW, and a total installed power of 40,975 kW, and an operational working depth of up to 45 metres[10]
Projects
Major projects realised (in part or whole) by Jan De Nul include:
Power inter-connector cable over a distance of 135 km and up to 1 km deep sea, with 12,000 tons of cable, connecting the island Crete with the Greek mainland. (2020-2021)[20]
25 year concession to maintain the Guayaquil Port Access Channel (2019-2044)[21]
Princess Elizabeth island, the world's first artificial energy island (2024-2026)[22]
Hijacked vessel
In April 2009, the Jan De Nul vessel "Pompei" was hijacked by Somali pirates en route from Aden to the Seychelles. The ship and its crew of ten were released after 71 days on 28 June 2009, after De Nul had paid 2.8 million Euros, according to media reports.[23]
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing dams, dikes, and other controls for streams and shorelines; and recovering valuable mineral deposits or marine life having commercial value. In all but a few situations the excavation is undertaken by a specialist floating plant, known as a dredger.
Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, abbreviated as GRSE, is one of India's leading defence shipyards, located in Kolkata. It builds and repairs commercial and naval vessels. GRSE also exports the ships that the company builds.
Appledore Shipbuilders is a shipbuilder in Appledore, North Devon, England.
Mercator Limited is an Indian company. It was earlier known as Mercator Lines Ltd. The Mercator group of companies has diversified business interests in Coal, Oil & Gas, Commodity Transportation, and Dredging. Mercator Limited is the parent company and was the second largest private sector shipping company in India, and it is based in Mumbai. It was amongst the highest wealth creators in the Indian stock exchanges between 2000 -2010.
Queen of the Netherlands is a Dutch trailing suction hopper dredger ship constructed in 1998. After lengthening in 2009, she was the largest and most powerful dredger in the world. The vessel has been used in high-profile salvage and dredging operations including the investigation into the Swissair Flight 111 crash and in the Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project. It has been called "the world's largest floating vacuum cleaner".
Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of capacity installed. Offshore wind farms are also less controversial than those on land, as they have less impact on people and the landscape.
The TSHD Shoalway is a trailing suction hopper dredger, owned and operated by Royal Boskalis Westminster, originally intended for the British market and built in 2010.
Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering NV (DEME) is an international group of specialised companies in the fields of capital and maintenance dredging, land reclamation, port infrastructure development, offshore related services for the oil & gas industry, offshore windfarm installation, and environmental remediation. The group is based in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, and has current operations on five continents.
The Mafuta is a diamond-mining ship owned and operated by De Beers in the western coast of South Africa. Built in 1983 as Dock Express 20 for Dock Express Shipping, the semisubmersible, multirole, heavy-lift vessel was converted to the world's largest cable layer in 1993. In 2005, she was purchased by De Beers, and converted to a subsea diamond-mining ship by A&P Tyne over the course of 11 months. The ship's new name, Peace in Africa, may have implied that it was providing an alternative to blood diamonds. In 2013, still under ownership of De Beers Marine Namibia, the vessel was renamed to MV Mafuta.
A trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) is a type of ship capable of maintaining navigable waterways, deepening the maritime canals that are threatened to become silted, constructing new land elsewhere or replacing sand eroded by storms or wave action on the beaches. This is made possible by large, powerful pumps and engines able to suck sand, clay, silt and gravel.
The TSHD Sospan Dau is a Dutch trailing suction hopper dredger owned by Sosban BV. The vessel has worked on dredging projects, including offshore aggregates, port maintenance, land reclamation, coastal defense and beach replenishment. The name Sospan Dau is Welsh and originates from Sosban Fach and Llanelli's tin plating industry, Sospan being the Welsh for Saucepan and Dau being Welsh for Two as the ship is a successor to the original Sospan.
Dredging Corporation of India Limited, or DCI, is an Indian dredging company which does dredging for Indian seaports exclusively. It occasionally dredges at foreign seaports in countries such as Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Dubai. It is mainly involved in maintenance dredging. Almost all the maintenance dredging in Indian seaports is carried out by DCI due to government regulations. DCI is also involved in capital dredging, beach nourishment, and land reclamation. The main seaports in which DCI does business are Visakhapatnam Port, Haldia, Kandla, Cochin Port and Ennore Port.
Kriegers Flak is a 605 MW offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea on the Danish part of the reef of the same name. It forms part of a new 400 MW interconnector between Denmark and Germany.
The Port of Payra is a seaport located at Kalapara in Patuakhali, Bangladesh. It was established by an Act of Parliament in 2013. The port was officially inaugurated in 2016. It is located on the Ramnabad Channel near the Bay of Bengal. The port is undergoing several Development and expansion and the project is expected to be completed in 2020.
The first exclusively owned dredger ship of its type in the Indian Navy; the indigenously built ship is meant for dredging the various navy ports. The ship was designed to meet precise deepening requirements around the dockyard and port installations and in riverine or other places where deepening is needed. The ship which can hold up to 300 cubic metres or 500 tons of dredged material, has a set of 8 openable hopper bottom doors for disposal of dredged material out at sea. The main equipment of the ship is a 320-HP Cummins-855-powered forward-mounted crane supplied by Titagarth Wagons. The crane’s 15.2-meter boom has a working radius of 12 meters and hoisting capacity of 10.5 metric tons at a 46-degree boom angle. The crane’s grab bucket has 3-cubic-meter capacity and holds up to 4.5 metric tons of dredged material; and is capable of dredging up to depths of 10 meters.
J. & K. Smit was a Dutch shipbuilding company located in Kinderdijk and Krimpen aan de Lek. Its successor is now part of Royal IHC.
Royal IHC or Koninklijke IHC, previously IHC Holland (1943–1995), IHC Holland Merwede (1995–2005) and IHC Merwede (2005–2014) is a Dutch shipbuilding company with headquarters in Kinderdijk. It focuses on the development, design and construction of ships for the dredging and offshore industries.
The Formosa 2 Offshore Wind Farm is a 376 MW offshore wind power station located near Miaoli County, Taiwan.
The Foreign Dredge Act of 1906 is a United States federal statute that requires dredges operating in US waters to be built in the United States, and to be owned and chartered by US citizens. Dredges violating the act are subject to seizure by and forfeiture to the US government.
L. Smit en Zoon previously known as Fop Smit, was a Dutch shipbuilding company located in Kinderdijk. Its successor is now part of Royal IHC.
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€ 2.9 billion (2023)
