International focus and outward orientation for the Netherlands originates from its long and distinguished maritime history.
The country has been a seafaring nation for more than five centuries. As a small nation situated partially below sea level without natural resources, the Netherlands has developed a close commercial connection to rivers and seas.
The Dutch are specialists in heavy-lift vessels and are innovators in the offshore oil and gas production sector. Furthermore, the Netherlands is home to the largest reefer shipping company in the world, and its maritime companies are specialists in land reclamation, dredging and piling in the sea. The Netherlands has been reclaiming land for more than 1,000 years, and 60 per cent of the country would be under water at high tide if there weren’t dams and dikes or land was not raised above sea level through aggradation.
Iconic landmarks
This expertise has landed Dutch companies a number of contracts in Dubai, including the Palm Jumeirah, undertaken by Van Oord, a specialist in dredging, marine engineering, soil improvement and offshore oil and gas projects.
Van Oord constructed the Palm Jumeirah by heaping up about 700 hectares of new land for which 110 million cubic meters of sand was used and which is protected by a circular breakwater about 11 kilometres long.
The company also built The World, an archipelago of more than 300 artificial islands in the shape of a map of the world, off the coast of Dubai.
Now, Van Oord has also been tasked with building a new island here. Meraas Development in February contracted the company for the Jumana Island project.
The contract is worth approximately €100 million (Dh480.96 million). Jumana Island will lie 500 metres off the coast and will be used for urban development. A bridge will connect the island to the coast. Work on the project has started and completion is scheduled for the end of 2013.
Shifting market
“Van Oord has been working virtually non-stop in Dubai since 2001,” says Pieter van Oord, CEO.
“We realised projects such as the construction of the islands Palm Jumeirah, The World and Palm Deira, the harbour development in Mina Seyahi, the land reclamation for Dubai Maritime City and the reclamation of various beaches.
“However, the Middle Eastern market has shifted from large land reclamation projects to activities relating to the oil and gas industry. One of the larger projects in this region is the 200-hectare expansion of the existing oil and gas island of Das in Abu Dhabi”, he adds.
Other Dutch companies active in the maritime construction sector in the UAE are Waterstudio NL and Dutch Docklands International. The former works on design projects for the Palm Jebel Ali and the latter has developed, designed and engineered a master plan for 89 floating islands at The World in a partnership with Dutch Watervalley, a group of companies consisting of a number of leading Dutch firms with hundreds of years of water-based knowledge.
The draft for the islands with a total area of 220,000 square metres comprises residential and commercial floating developments. However, it is not sure when or if the project will materialise, so the company is now focusing on a floating island project in the Maldives, which is supposed to start later this year.
“The Netherlands has hundreds of years of experience of water management,” says Jasper Mulder, General Manager, Dutch Docklands.
“So what we proposed were floating islands, which are more feasible and cost-effective than building on the existing land, while also being more environmentally friendly.”
Albwardy Marine Engineering is another large maritime company with Dutch roots in the UAE. It operates fully equipped shipyards in Dubai and Fujairah and is a joint venture between Albwardy Investment and Netherlands-based Damen Group, one of the largest Dutch shipyard operators with annual revenues of €1.7 billion in 2012. The company is active in dry docking and repairs, special marine services such as hydraulic and diving services, as a shipping agency and a manufacturer of storage tanks.
Flying the UAE flag
Linden Shipping International, a marine chartering and towage company based in Dubai, is part of Dutch Linden Group, which is also active in the fields of chemicals, health care and trading in the Gulf region. According to General Manager Dick van der Linden, the shipping arm of the company has around 200 staff and has been operating in Dubai since 1994. He says the company is now one of the largest owners of vessels that ship under the UAE flag.
Linden Shipping operates a 20,000 square metre yard and jetty space in Al Jadaf, the Dubai Ship Docking Yard on the Dubai Creek. It is also doing hydrographic survey work, projects in the oil and gas industry, marine engineering, dredging, as well as laying and installing cables and sub-sea pipelines.
Other Dutch companies are also active maritime-oil related activities, such as A. Hak Beheer, a specialist in pipeline construction, and IHC Merwede, a company that designs and builds special purpose vessels. The company is also active in dredging, land reclamation, as well as port maintenance and construction. The subsidiary in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Freezone is responsible for the entire Middle East market.
“A key part of our strategy is the establishment of regional headquarters to rationalise our local presence and secure building capacity in partner shipyards,” says Govert Hamers, President, IHC Merwede.
“There is certainly room for optimism due to an encouraging list of prospective projects and potential new orders.”
