wiredinUSA July 2013

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wiredInUSA - July 2013 29 EUROPE NEWS
Royal Boskalis Westminster NV (Boskalis)
and Royal Volker Wessels Stevin NV
(VolkerWessels) are to establish a
cable installation joint venture. Boskalis
and VolkerWessels will each hold a 50
percent stake in Visser and Smit Marine
Contracting Holding BV (currently a 100
percent subsidiary of VolkerWessels),
which will continue its activities under the
name VSMC.
The joint venture will primarily focus
on the installation of offshore power
cables. Boskalis and VSMC already work
together on a project basis and the two
companies are enthusiastic about the
collaboration.
Through this cooperation VSMC will
have access to two cable-laying vessels,
the Stemat Spirit and the Ndurance.
Both vessels are fitted with DP class
2 equipment with a cable turntable
capacity of around 5,000 tonnes and
are wholly owned by the two parent
companies.
Boskalis and VSMC recently worked
together on developing the
Trenchformer, a multi-purpose cable
trencher capable of dealing with
many different types of soil and cables.
The trencher is able to bury cables in
water depths of up to 400m. As well as
working alongside a cable-laying vessel
,the Trenchformer can be deployed
independently. An extensive testing
program is currently underway in the
Maasvlakte industrial area and the
Moerdijk, after which the Trenchformer
will be deployed on projects from the
summer.
Installation joint venture
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