Keppel Singmarine bags pair of newbuild dredgers from Van Oord

KEPPEL Singmarine has won newbuild contracts for the construction of two high-value dredgers.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine announced the contracts from international contracting group Van Oord after Wednesday's trading close.

No contract value was provided but The Business Times understands the newbuilding contracts range in hundreds of millions of Singapore dollars.

The delivery of the dredgers are scheduled for Q4 2020 and Q2 2021. Keppel Singmarine has extended Van Oord an option to be exercised within one year for a third dredger.

Construction of these dredgers, which will be equipped with dual-fuel systems capable of running on liquefied natural gas (LNG), will bolster Keppel O&M's track record in building and delivering LNG-related marine products.

The award of these contracts to Keppel Singmarine also spells diversification of Keppel O&M's order book beyond upstream oil and gas projects.

Keppel O&M's managing director for gas and specialised vessels Abu Bakar pointed out that the O&M arm of Keppel Corp has leveraged on its design and construction capabilities "to provide customers from different industries with tailored solutions for ships of various specifications and functions".

The pair of newbuild vessels placed with Keppel Singmarine will also be Van Oord's first LNG hopper dredgers.

Van Oord's staff director Jaap de Jong said that the international contracting group has "already launched its first LNG-powered crane vessel last month". The group looks to strengthen its "mid-class dredger fleet and presence in the region ... (by) working with Keppel on these modern and environmentally-friendly dredgers".

Van Oord has been involved in significant civil engineering contracts including the second Suez Canal and the port of Rotterdam's Maasvlakte 2 expansion as well as the construction of offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

Keppel Corp closed at S$8.16 on Wednesday, down six cents.