pranaydeeps/LettucePOS huggingface dataset:
In Belgium, Jan De Nul Group is actively involved in the expansion of the ports of Antwerp, Zeebrugge and Ghent, amongst others through the construction or renovation of harbour docks, quay walls and locks.
2. Water Purification and Distribution Infrastructure
In the past decades, Jan De Nul Group has established a unique record in the field of water purification and sewage infrastructure, installations for the treatment of drinkingwater, gas and water pipelines - this for both civil and electromechanical engineering aspects.
These are typically projects for which more complex forms of contract are used such as D&B (Design & Build), DBFM (Design, Build, Finance, and Maintain) and BOOT (Build Own Operate Transfer), whether or not in cooperation with a public partner.
In 2010, Jan De Nul Group completed amongst other projects the water purification plant of Essen as well as the collector ' La Chevratte ' in Virton.
3. Transport Infrastructure
Particularly in Belgium, Jan De Nul has already executed a number of important transport infrastructure projects.
At present, we are working on the impressive Schuman railway tunnel in Brussels.
Also from abroad, the demand for the unique expertise of Jan De Nul Group is increasing.
The group was the main contractor in the ' Manifa Field ' project in Saudi Arabia, a Design & Build project in which 27 newly developed islands were interconnected through 41 km of causeway, a fly-over of 2.4 km and several bridges.
4. Buildings
Buildings take a special place within Jan De Nul's construction company.
As well as mastering the architectural aspects, such projects also require an in-depth knowledge of special technologies, finishing techniques and materials.
Jan De Nul Group can pride itself on major realisations such as the concert hall in Bruges.
Current projects include the construction of several new homes for the elderly, the renovation and extension of the Sint-Andries hospital in Tielt and, starting in 2011, the construction of the new seat of the European Council and the Council of the European Union (Residence Palace) in Brussels.
Because of the financial and economic crisis the Belgian construction industry has gone through a somewhat more difficult period in the past few years.
2010 was the third consecutive year with a negative growth (- 1.2%).
However, it is anticipated that as of 2011 the industry will again realise a positive growth of + 1.2%.
It should be noted that in the past few years the civil engineering segment has performed better than the construction industry in general thanks to increased government investments within the scope of the economic recovery plan.
On a global scale, the port development industry - particularly in Latin-America and Southeast Asia - continues to grow unabatedly.
Investments in ports are a direct consequence of the increased global port traffic, the ever larger vessels and the rapid economic development of the BRIC countries.
2.1.3 Environment
The environmental activities of the group are executed through our associate company Envisan, which specialises in the treatment, purification and processing of sediments, soil, groundwater and specific waste substances.
During 2010, Envisan carried through some major organisational changes to improve its market penetration and increase its standing in this specialised industry.
As of this year, the activities of Envisan are organised in three groups:
1. Sediment Treatment and Environmental Dredging
The environmental engineering aspects related to our dredging activities are becoming increasingly important.
Treatment of these sediments is carried out either using mobile installations at the dredging site itself - as applied within the scope of the large-scale project for dredging channels and rivers in the Walloon Region - or in one of Envisan's own sediment treatment centres.
In these centres, dredged sediments can be dewatered and purified using several different techniques, after which the material can in most cases be used in construction applications.
2. Soil and Groundwater Remediation
Since 1992, Envisan has been active in the remediation of polluted soil and groundwater.
Remediation concepts are developed and implemented for both public authorities and private companies.
These are often multidisciplinary projects requiring an intensive and integrated approach whereby civil engineering, hydrogeology and environmental technology are all combined.
Envisan has a comprehensive range of equipment and techniques available that can be applied depending on the specific situation.
It also operates several soil treatment centres where the excavated contaminated soil can be processed.
Envisan is also becoming increasingly renowned as an expert partner for the remediation and redevelopment of brownfields.
In such projects, whether or not through a public-private partnership, we go for an overall, integrated approach that warrants the decontamination and remediation of the site.
One of many examples from the past year is the commissioning of a state-of-the-art plant in Romania.
Lately, the international character and presence of Envisan has strongly increased.
Spurred on by the World Trade Organisation, the trend towards sustainable development and environmental awareness in a number of growth countries is being reflected in new local legislation and in the setting up of active environment administrations.
Worldwide, the demand for environment-related works and technology is increasing, whereas the existing technical capacity is not expanded at the same pace.
Envisan is keen to anticipate this trend and has developed a firm strategic action plan to do so.
Envisan not only wants to maintain its leading market position in Flanders and its activities in France, Italy, Romania and the Walloon Region, it also wants to realise projects in a targeted manner in a number of other regions of the world where the environmental industry is still in its infancy.
2010 was a year of transition for Jan De Nul Group.
As announced in the Annual Report of 2009, we felt in 2010 the impact of the economic and financial crisis.
In spite of this, a turnover of 1.8 billion Euro, i.e. just below the 2008 level was still realised.
Also in 2010, we went full ahead with our investment programme and the delivery of 9 new vessels: 4 split hopper barges, 2 self-propelled cutter suction dredgers, 1 mega backhoe, 1 trailing suction hopper dredger and the world's largest fall pipe vessel.
Obviously, the fact that recruitment of additional personnel for these new vessels whilst these vessels could not yet be operated was reflected in our costs.
However, the EBITDA margin held up pretty well, decreasing only from 23.4% in 2009 to 20.7% in 2010.
A logical consequence of our investment programme.
2.2.2 Turnover according to Activity
In 2010, the Group's core activity was still its dredging and marine works.
In 2010, the turnover consisted of about 18% civil engineering works, 4% environmental activities and 78% dredging works.
The dredging works can be subdivided in maintenance dredging, capital dredging, land reclamation, offshore and rock revetment works, representing 10%, 45%, 14%, 8% and 1% of the turnover respectively.
2.2.3 Regional Division of Turnover
With 70% of the turnover in 2008 and 49% in 2009, Asia and the Middle East were in the past by far the most important regions for Jan De Nul Group, particularly for large-scale dredging projects.
In 2010, as a result of the financial crisis, the share of Asia and the Middle East as regional markets decreased to 24% of the turnover.
Latin America on the other hand is increasing, representing in 2010 25% of our turnover (12% in 2009).
The need for new port infrastructure to support the region's economic growth will further stimulate this situation.
The increase of the European share (from 20% to 33%) can be explained by the strong dredging and civil engineering activities and by the production of own specific dredging equipment.
This shift in the regional division of the turnover gives evidence of the geographical flexibility of Jan De Nul Group and will continue in 2011.
Already, the order portfolio includes many orders from Latin America.
2.3 Order Portfolio
The number of orders increased rapidly in the last months of 2010 resulting in a total order portfolio at the end of 2010, civil engineering and environmental works included, of about 3.1 billion Euro compared to 2.6 billion Euro at the end of 2009.
Awarded projects are situated in the farthest corners of the world, from South America and the Caribbean over Africa and Europe to Southeast Asia and Australia.
The most important contracts awarded in 2010 are, amongst others, the dredging and land reclamation works for the Formosa Plastics Group in Taiwan.
These works include the reclamation of 2,000 hectares of land and the creation of the new port of Son Duong.
Jan De Nul Group also obtained in the contract for upgrading the Elisabeth II quay in Sierra Leone (financed by the World Bank) and dredging works are being executed in, amongst others, the port of Tuticorin (India), Bremerhaven (Germany) and Bohai Bay (China).
The offshore division obtained contracts in amongst other countries Australia, the Bahamas, the North Sea, Papua New Guinea, India and Russia.
These orders include dredging works on the seabed for the installation of pipelines, the stabilisation and backfilling of pipelines and the renovation of an oil terminal.
Major clients involved are Chevron, Statoil, Gazprom and Technip.
The Civil Engineering Division was awarded in 2010 the construction of a new lock in Ivoz Ramet.
Geographically, Jan De Nul Group has noticed that since 2009 the strongly increasing significance of Latin America for its order portfolio and at the end of 2010 Asia and Australia also represent a ever greater share.
On the other hand, the share of the Middle East in the order portfolio is becoming ever smaller whereas the European share remains fairly stable.
Obviously, the Civil Engineering Division is very important for Europe's share in the total order portfolio.
The considerable contribution of Latin America in the order portfolio is the result of projects in, amongst others, Panama (canal and locks), Brazil (a/o Salvador Aratu), Peru (Port of Callao), Argentina (a/o Bahía Blanca and the rivers Río Paraná and Río de la Plata), Mexico (port of Lazaro Cardenas and port of Veracruz) and the Bahamas (moving a pipeline for Statoil).
The largest environment-related works in our portfolio are the Amoras project near the port of Antwerp (Belgium) and the long-range contract with Petrom for the remediation of 200,000 m³ of oil-bearing waste products in Pitesti (Romania).
The latter project is the largest environmental project in Romania and one of the largest in Europe.
2.4 Personnel
2010 was not only the year of the Randstad Award, which Jan De Nul was adjudged as the most popular employer of Belgium, it was also a year in which the group expanded by no less than 382 people.
Among these 382 was also the company's 500th engineer.
Jan De Nul Group concluded 2010 with a total work force worldwide of 5,416 employees with an average age of 38 years.
The fact that Jan De Nul Group employs 500 engineers, is in itself no surprise, being a rapidly expanding high-tech company.
The book illustrates the diversity of a job as engineer in the company.
Jan Pieter De Nul
" Question everything: that has always been second nature to me.
It is also what has made Jan De Nul Group what it is today.
That, and ambition and hard work.
You must have something of an entrepreneur to succeed at Jan De Nul Group.
Have the ambition to move forward.
Solve a different problem every day.
Think commercially, be technically skilled and have a quick mind.
We operate in difficult countries, execute difficult projects.
The difference between ourselves and a lesser company is that in such event our team will say: it will be difficult, but together we can solve it.
Here, people don't go on holiday when the going gets tough.
I also believe that for an engineer there is no better company to work for than ours.
There is no industry in which the set of tasks is so diverse, from CAD / CAM draughtsman to environment supervisor, from Aalst to Panama.
The fact that in mid 2010 we could employ our 500th engineer, is indeed special to me.
There aren't many companies in Belgium that have that many engineers.
We asked seventeen of our engineers what was the most challenging situation they ever encountered with their team.
The stories that this led to say it all.
My father, the engineer who started all this, was in 1936 among the first Flemish " crop " of civil engineers from Ghent.
And then the second joined the company: Mr. Ruben whose grand-son still works for us.
Since then, many things have changed: the works became bigger and more spectacular and our responsibilities as well.
The story doesn't stop with the 500th engineer: our Company will keep on growing and this we owe to the group of people giving it their best effort every day.
In 2010, 320 new crew members were taken on board to man these ships together with the corresponding new auxiliary equipment.
Our efforts are being complemented by our new offshore clients.
The growth of our dredging division is not yet completed and so we will continue to recruit and train new staff.
They are invited to various " in-house " training courses to enhance their understanding and knowledge of the dredging processes.
Wherever needed, adjustments are made, which ensures that amongst the selected people, only a few drop out.
The dredging, cutter suction, backacter, machine and sailing simulators that Jan De Nul Group has available for this have proven to be invaluable tools for the training trajectory of crew members.
The dredging vessel ' DN31 ' collided with a tanker.
The much smaller ' DN31 ' capsized immediately after the collision.
The 3 crew members with many years of loyal service to the company stood no chance in the cold Scheldt water.
A sad day for Jan De Nul Group and all its employees.
The investigation into the precise circumstances of the accident is still ongoing.
Meanwhile, the bodies of two of the deceased crew members have been recovered.
A third crew member is still missing.
The loss for the concerned families is tremendous.
For every project and every passage across hazardous areas, many precautionary measures are taken by a specially designated department within Jan De Nul Group.
This could not however prevent that in August 2010 Nigerian rebels sailing in the coastal waters of Cameroon boarded our vessel the ' Amerigo Vespucci '.
They succeeded in overpowering and kidnapping two crew members.
After an exhausting period of three weeks, both crew members were released and taken care of by the company.
Since then the watchfulness has further increased.
People who work here seem to have the same philosophy of life, they have the same frame of mind and want to move ahead.
What appeals most to me, is the variation of the job.
One year, you can work on a project in South America, the next you can go to Australia and work on a completely different project.
Jan De Nul Group is known for giving new employees a lot of responsibility very early in their career.
As a superintendent I must make sure that everything on board the ship goes as planned.
I haven't exactly lost any sleep over it yet, but it is of course very exciting.
Only two weeks before departure am I told to which project I will be sent.
Luckily, I am not alone in this.
There are other engineers who already have worked twenty years on board of ships and on whom you can count.
They know what they are talking about.
I believe it is crucial to consult a lot before taking a calculated decision.
All new engineers first receive a training of six weeks.
It is my dream to move on to a more economy-related job such as project manager.
At the university, all focus is on theory and science.
I am glad I can now put the theory into practice.
I don't think I feel different than the 499 other engineers at Jan De Nul Group, but the figure 500 does say a lot about the Company.
You will have to look hard to find another Belgian company with that many engineers. "
3. Activity Report by Region
In 2009, we already noticed a geographical shift of our activities to mainly Latin America and Australia.
This trend was confirmed in 2010.
Against this background, Jan De Nul Group opened a new office in Perth.
New projects were obtained from all over the world, South Africa and the Caribbean over Africa and Europe to Southeast Asia and Australia.
Latin America remains the strongest growth region, but also Africa and Asia are gaining in this respect.
The projects that were obtained in 2010 are very diverse: from capital dredging works in existing ports to the development of undeveloped sites; from big customers in the oil and gas industry to exporters of minerals; from government-controlled port authorities to new private companies.
3.1 Dredging
Together with that, we also realised the widening of the Western Scheldt, enabling ships with a draught up to 13.10 metre to sail to the port of Antwerp regardless of tidal conditions.
The turnover for these capital dredging works amounted to 73 million Euro.
The main vessels used by Jan De Nul Group for these maintenance and capital dredging works were the trailing suction hopper dredgers ' Alexander Von Humboldt ', ' Manzanillo II ' and ' Pinta '.
The contracts for the river Scheldt are still in force until mid 2013, those for the coast until the end of 2011.
In the ' Kluizendock ' in Ghent, the cutter suction dredger ' Ortelius ' successfully completed the very last dredging works for the construction of the Kluizendock.
At the entrance of the dock the northern parallel quay (ca. 500,000 m³) still had to be dredged up to a water depth of 13 m and reclaimed over a distance of more than 4 km.
The works were executed while the dock was fully operational, whereby the delivery pipe had to cross the quay platforms of the various concessionaires and all hindrance to the busy shipping traffic had to be avoided.
The next job of the ' Ortelius ' was the extension of the Southern Channel Dock in the back harbour area of Zeebrugge.
When completed, about 2.4 million m³ will have been dredged and reclaimed on the various dumping sites nearby.
The biggest challenge is storing the large amount of " non-supporting " soil.
In June 2010, the last sediments for the new fairway to Ostend were dredged.
In an area strewn with war equipment (mainly UXO) the works were completed well within the preset terms.
At present, the cutter suction dredger ' Hendrik Geeraert ' is executing, for the fifth year in a row, maintenance dredging works adjacent to the coastal marinas of Nieuwpoort, a contract ending in May 2012.
Within the largest tidal marina complex of Western Europe, Jan De Nul is succeeding in executing dredging works spread over different sites and at locations in between permanent berthing constructions that are very difficult to reach.
Delivery distances of up to 1,000 m have become common practice for this vessel.
3.1.2 Rest of Europe
On 12 February 2010, after years of political and legal discussions, the deepening of the Western Scheldt, the Dutch part of the Scheldt, finally started.
For these works, strict limiting conditions apply to maintain the multi-channel system with main channels, side channels, mud flats, salt marshes, sandbars and shallow water areas.
One of the consequences is that all dredged spoil must be dumped on three clearly defined dumping-grounds near sandbars in the Scheldt so that new, ecologically valuable shallow water areas are created.
A limited part of this material can be dumped by the trailing suction hopper dredgers, but the major part is reclaimed by the hopper dredgers, through a floating pipeline, to a spray pontoon, which ensures the even distribution of the reclaimed spoil up to two metre below the low-water level.
Of the 7.7 million m³ of sand to be dredged in the Netherlands, 3 million m³ had already been dredged after only three months.
Considering the political inportant of these works, the originally planned execution term of two years was reduced to one year.
Right at the end of 2010, in early December, the Dutch order portfolio was extended with a beach replenishment contract in Zoutelande (ca. 850,000 m³) in addition to the replenishment order in Egmond-aan-Zee (about 900,000 m) already placed in July 2010.
These works will be executed in 2011.
Cuxhaven, situated at the estuary of the Elbe in North Germany, decided a few years ago to go resolutely for renewable energy.
Because of its great natural water depth and its good road and railway connections, this port is ideally located as an operating base for the construction of wind parks in the North Sea.
In the winter of 2009 - 2010, Jan De Nul Group reclaimed a site of 90 hectares.
This contract entailed the excavation, transport and storage of 150,000 m³ of clay from an old dike and the reclamation of 2.5 million m³ of sand.
On these areas, assembly halls will be built in which, in the near future, the largest types of ' offshore ' wind turbines will be assembled.
For the execution of this project, it was originally planned to use the medium-large trailing suction hopper dredger ' Alexander von Humboldt '.
However subsequently, it was decided to deploy the world's largest trailing suction hopper dredger ' Cristóbal Colón '.
The successful execution of this assignment shows that an increase in size of vessel does not necessarily result in a more limited usability.
The good manoeuvrability and rather limited draught of this giant vessel, combined with its enormous loading capacity, ensured that the works could be delivered earlier than planned.
The initial scepticism of the local shipping authorities about the deployment of the ' Cristóbal Colón ' on one of the world's busiest shipping routes proved to be unfounded.
In Spain, two current projects were completed: in Valencia, the project for deepening the port's access channel and in Bilbao the reclamation of land behind the new quay wall AZ1.
In Tarragona, the Muelle de la Quimica project was commenced.
In the first phase, the new cutter suction dredger ' Zheng He ' was mobilised for dredging a trench for the new quay wall and for reclaiming a first site in the Muelle de Andalucia.
At the end of 2011, a second phase for the reclamation of the land behind the Muelle de la Quimica will follow.
In Cyprus, on 7 July 2010 an agreement with the J&P-Athena-Cybarco Marina Lemesou Joint Venture for executing soil remediation works below the planned breakwaters and quay walls of a new, luxurious marina in Limassol was signed.
For this high-precision work, Jan De Nul Group mobilised the very manoeuvrable trailing suction hopper dredger ' Pinta ', which is ideal for works in shallow waters.
3.1.3 Latin America
The most important dredging activity in Panama in 2010 was the contract for widening and deepening the Atlantic access channel of the Panama canal.
Thanks to the deployment of several types of vessels (five vessels in the peak period) it was possible to execute two thirds of the project by the end of 2010.
This contract also triggered some " spin-offs ", such as the removal of soft soil at the Pacific side of the new lock complex, a subcontract for dredging the footprint of the cofferdam for the PAC4 project, the deepening of the access channel and turning basin of the installations of Panama Ports Company at the Atlantic side and, finally, the awarding of the contract for the dry excavation and dredging of the northern access channel to the Pacific.
The latter project entails the blasting and excavation of 4 million m³ of rock, part of which under water.
In Honduras, we completed in the spring of 2010 the reclamation works for the first phase of the new container terminal in Puerto Cortes with the cutter suction dredger ' Dirk Martens '.
In Mexico, Jan De Nul Group was able to maintain its market share in a " shrinking " market.
In Manzanillo, the expansion of the commercial port was completed.
Also the reclamation of the beaches of Cancún and Playa del Carmen in Quintana Roo were successfully completed.