Royal IHC delivers new hopper dredgers for Cameroon and Abu Dhabi
On 20 August, Royal IHC handed over the 3,000 m3 trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) Mont Mandara to Cameroon’s Port Authority of Douala. This delivery followed successful sea trials that included the testing of the rainbow installation on the bow of the vessel.
Royal IHC also delivered a new TSHD to National Marine Dredging Company from Abu Dhabi.
Better port access
TSHD Mont Mandara is a type Easydredge from IHC’s standardised range of dredging vessels, which are built for common maintenance and land reclamation projects. The vessel offers large flexibility to the port authority as it can be customised to adapt to its dedicated working environment.
Initially, the dredger will be used to execute vital dredging work to maintain the access channel to the port of Douala-Bonabéri.
Quick delivery
The new vessel was constructed in Poland, and sea trials were completed in the Baltic Sea and off the Dutch coast, following delivery in The Netherlands.
The delivery has been very quickly, following shortly after the effectiveness of the contract in March this year. ‘We are delighted to continue our excellent partnership with Port Authority of Douala with the quick delivery of this vessel,’ says Arne de Kock, IHC’s Executive Commercial Director. ‘At IHC, we remain fully committed to supporting and increasing the capacity of our customers in their dredging activities.’
New dredger for NMDC
Only two weeks later, Royal IHC delivered another hopper dredger. This time to National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) from Abu Dhabi. It concerned the 8,000 m3 trailing suction hopper dredger Ghasha that left the Netherlands to start her first project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Ghasha is based on the design of the 6,000 m3 TSHD Arzana, which was also delivered by Royal IHC to NMDC in 2018. The dredger is equipped with the latest available software for efficient dredging, such as DP/DT capability, a forward-looking survey system, and can be monitored on the NMDC Dredge Fleet Monitoring System mobile phone app during operations.
Production delay because of Covid
The construction phase was affected by the social distancing required due to COVID-19, and the project teams both at IHC and NMDC adopted extraordinary safety precautions and innovations in production as a result.
