CEMEX UK signs contract with Damen for first Marine Aggregate Dredger

Laurence Dagley, director 643 CEMEX Marine UK, has signed a contract with Frank de Lange, regional sales director of the Damen Shipyards Group, for the delivery of the first Damen Marine Aggregate Dredger (MAD) 3500 in CEMEX’s fleet. The new near £30 million dredger will be the first new CEMEX vessel in 20 years, representing significant investment and ensuring supply of vital sand and gravel into the construction market.

The vessel, which will be built at Damen Shipyards Galati, in Romania, is designed to extract sand and gravel from the sea bed up to depths of 55 metres, including in the challenging conditions experienced in the North Sea. The dredger is the result of extensive market research and customer consultation which highlighted that the UK dredging industry has an aging fleet with increased focus by the market on the need for marine dredging. 

CEMEX UK has a pre-existing relationship with Damen, having utilised the service of Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam for maintenance of their vessels.  When approaching Damen, CEMEX had a clear set of requirements, as Laurence Dagley, director CEMEX UK Marine, explains: “We wanted a cutting edge design, something for the 21st century with all the safety, efficiency, environmental and on board comfort credentials this implies.

“Achieving a maximum uptime within what can be a challenging working environment is also important to us. Damen accepted the challenges that we gave them, delivering a robust, yet innovative design that demonstrates the combined experience and ingenuity of our respective teams. Proudly wearing CEMEX colours, this new ship represents the start of our ambition to modernise our fleet over the coming years, to serve the increasing need for marine dredged aggregates in the UK.”

The MAD 3500 dredger will replace CEMEX’s Sand Heron and will give an additional 20% of aggregates that can be delivered per trip. Further design features include optimal balance between payload and efficiency, overall length of 103.5 metres, a deadweight of just under 7,000 tonnes and a maximum loaded speed of approximately 12 knots.

The MAD 3500 will also have exceptional seakeeping behaviour, offering crew comfort in rough seas and the capability to work in heavy weather conditions. The bow is enclosed, protecting deck equipment and the “user-friendly” design ensures relatively simple maintenance and part replacement to maximise non-operational time.

Damen regional sales director, Frank de Lange says: “We are honoured to work with CEMEX UK on this innovative project. At Damen we are always happy to embrace a challenge and this vessel, which includes a number of never before seen features is a good example of that. We feel confident that the MAD has all the attributes required to bring the aggregate dredging fleet up to date and into the future. We’re looking forward to seeing the first MAD in action at the end of 2019.”