First Milestone Reached for Jan De Nul in Ecuador Port City

Jan De Nul Group, a maritime infrastructure service provider with its financial headquarters in Luxembourg, has announced that it has reached its first important milestone in Guayaquil, the second largest city and main port in Ecuador.

Last weekend, the Municipality of Guayaquil officially inaugurated its newly deepened maritime access channel  by welcoming the first Neo-Panamax vessel APL Esplanade in the port. After nine months of dredging, Jan De Nul Group has reached a first important milestone by concluding the deepening of the 95-kilometre long access channel to the port in record time. The maintenance of the channel for the remaining 24 years can now begin.

In December 2018, the Municipality of Guayaquil and Jan De Nul Group signed a 25-year performance-based concession contract for the deepening and maintenance of this access channel to the Port of Guayaquil. In early 2019, Jan De Nul Group kicked off the capital dredging works to guarantee a new authorised draft of 12.5m. Today, Jan De Nul announced that the authorities approved the 12.5m as the authorised depth and even increased it to 13m under special circumstances, which opens the Port of Guayaquil to Neo-Panamax type vessels. A fleet of four medium-sized Trailing Suction Hopper Dredgers and Cutter Suction Dredger Ibn Battuta removed about 25 million m³ of sediments in the space of nine months. The Ibn Battuta removed the hard rock formation in the access channel, known as Los Goles.

Jan De Nul Group will now operate and maintain the channel under this 25-year concession contract. The total investment of the deepening and maintenance dredging works will be recuperated by collecting a transit fee.