IHC Merwede can look back on an excellent first half year in 2008. A further increase in revenue and results is expected for the second half year of 2008 as orders keep coming in. Therefore, IHC plans to further expand its production capacity within and outside of the Netherlands.
– Revenue for 1st half year of 2008: EUR 512 million. 54% up on first six months of 2007.
– Order book as at 30 June 2008: EUR 1.77 billion. + 30%.
– Net profit 1st half year of 2008: EUR 48 million. + 60%.
– Major expansion of production capacity.
President Govert Hamers: ‘Given this growth, we are working hard on expanding production capacity. An important step in the process of expanding our production capacity is the establishment of International Dredgers Heusden (IDH). The goal of IDH is to build ships at appropriate locations outside our own yards, with IHC Merwede being responsible. The sales, design and calculation for the assignments will be done by IHC Merwede. IDH will be responsible for implementing the assignment.’
Expansion in China
Another major step in this process is the investment in a new machine factory for strategic dredger parts in Guangzhou in southern China. IHC Merwede already has a factory there for supplying parts. The new factory emphasises the importance of the Chinese market for IHC Merwede. Especially for China, IHC Merwede has developed stationary cutter suction dredgers of the IHC 7025MP and IHC 8527MP types, and the vessels are also being built in China. This activity is expanding to such an extent that IHC Merwede recently entered into a joint venture with a Chinese ship yard in Dalian to respond effectively to this market flow. The joint venture is known as the IHC (Dalian) Dredging Vessel Technology Development Company Ltd.
Alongside production capacity, IHC Merwede also has its own service centre in China in Tanggu, with service engineers trained in China, a warehouse for spare parts and a mobile training centre with a simulator for training dredger operators. There was already a service centre in Tianjin.
Outsourcing in Belgrado
In Belgrado, IHC Merwede has outsourced the building of hulls for the standard cutter suction dredgers of the Beaver type to a local yard. Govert Hamers: ‘In time, we want to enter into a collaboration agreement with the yard for the construction of complete medium-sized Beaver cutter suction dredgers. I wouldn’t want to rule out the possibility that we may even be building (small) trailing suction hopper dredgers there.’
Expansion at Krimpen nearly Completed
The investments at the Krimpen aan den IJssel site are reaching the final stages. The work on the completion quay and the panel line is in full swing and IHC Merwede in Krimpen aan den IJssel will soon have a compact, complete and competitive yard for the construction of complex vessels up to 38m wide.
Finally, throughout the company IHC is looking for additional ways of reducing throughput times in order to enhance production capacity further.
New Orders Require Larger Workforce
Today IHC also announced having received 300 million Euros of new orders. These assignments will result in several man-years of work for our own companies, and for suppliers and sub-contractors. The full utilisation rate in the years to come means that the workforce is being expanded at virtually all levels of the organisation.
