Jan De Nul Group is a family-owned Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 company, with the financial headquarters in Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

, that provides services relating to the construction and maintenance of maritime infrastructure on an international basis. Its main focus is dredging (including other forms of marine engineering), which accounts for 85% of the turnover. Other areas include civil engineering and environmental technology.

History

Originally founded in 1938, in Hofstade near Aalst, Belgium

Aalst, Belgium

Aalst is a city and municipality on the Dender River, 19 miles northwest from Brussels. It is located in the Flemish province of East Flanders in the Denderstreek. The municipality comprises the city of Aalst itself and the villages of Baardegem, Erembodegem, Gijzegem, Herdersem, Hofstade,...

, Jan De Nul started as a construction company specialised in civil works and maritime construction. It was only in 1951 that the company entered into the dredging business.

At the end of 2008, Jan De Nul had 4985 employees and a yearly turnover of 1.882 billion euro. It is one of the four largest dredging companies in the world, together with Dutch companies Royal Boskalis Westminster

Royal Boskalis Westminster

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a Netherlands-based company that provides services relating to the construction and maintenance of maritime infrastructure on an international basis...

 and Van Oord

Van Oord

Van Oord is a Dutch contracting company that specializes in dredging and land reclamation. Van Oord has undertaken many projects throughout the world, including land reclamation, dredging and beach nourishment.-History:...

, and fellow Belgians DEME

DEME

Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering NV is an international group of specialised companies in the field of capital and maintenance dredging, land reclamation, port infrastructure development, offshore related services for the oil & gas industry, farshore windfarm installation,...

.

Jan De Nul was voted the most attractive employer of Belgium in February 2009.

Fleet

Jan De Nul has a fleet of over 80 ships, including 14 cutter suction dredgers, 26 trailing suction hopper dredgers, 20 split barges, 5 backhoe dredgers and 17 rock transport barges. This includes the Cristobal Colon, when launched in 2008 the world's largest dredger with a capacity of 46,000 m³. It can dredge to a water depth of 155m. When it will be joined by her sister ship Leiv Eiriksson in 2010, Jan De Nul will have the world's largest fleet of hopper dredgers.

Projects

Major projects realised in part or whole by Jan De Nul include the Panama Canal expansion project, the Bridgetown Port enhancement project

Port of Bridgetown

The Port of Bridgetown , is a seaport in Bridgetown on the southwest coast of Barbados...

, the Port Botany expansion

Port Botany, New South Wales

Port Botany is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Port Botany is located 12 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district, is in the local government area of the City of Randwick...

, the Manifa Field Causeway and Island Project in Saudi Arabia, the Palm Jebel Ali

Palm Jebel Ali

The Palm Jebel Ali are artificial archipelago, and began construction in October 2002 and were expected to be completed in mid 2008 though as of 2011 construction is on hold. The Palm Jebel Ali is expected to accommodate 1.7 million people by 2020. Once it has been completed, it will be encircled...

 artificial island in Dubai, and the adjacent Dubai Waterfront

Dubai Waterfront

The Dubai Waterfront was expected to become the largest waterfront and largest man-made development in the world. The project is a conglomeration of canals and artificial archipelago; it will occupy the last remaining Persian Gulf coastline of Dubai, the most populous emirate of the United Arab...

.

Hijacked vessel

In April 2009, the Jan De Nul vessel "Pompei" was hijacked by Somali pirates

Piracy in Somalia

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a threat to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War in the early 21st century...

 on route from Aden

Aden

Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...

 to the Seychelles

Seychelles

Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....

. The ship and its crew of ten were released after 71 days on June 28, 2009, after De Nul had paid 2.8 million Euros, according to media reports.