Belgian marine contractor Jan De Nul has placed an order at China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) Haimen shipyard for an extra-large cable-laying vessel for delivery in 2026.
The vessel, which will serve the renewable energy and subsea cable industry in installing cables over longer distances and in deeper waters, will have a carrying capacity of 28,000 tonnes, which is double the capacity of any other cable-laying vessel on the market, Jan De Nul said.
The ship will be equipped with three cable carousels and a large hold for fibre optic cables, capable of laying up to four cables simultaneously. Two carousels are mounted on deck, with a third below deck.
It will be powered by engines that can run on biofuel and green methanol and 2.5 MWh battery and drive technology, designed for peak shaving, load smoothening, spinning reserve and optimized engine loading. It will also be equipped with a dual exhaust filter system which removes up to 99% of nanoparticles from emissions using a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and a selective catalytic reduction system (SCR) for NOx removal.
The newbuild will be named after the late Regius professor of engineering at the University of Edinburgh, Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin, who was an active pioneer in offshore cable installation.
“Fleeming Jenkin bundles all the cable installation expertise we’ve gained over the past decade,” said Wouter Vermeersch, manager offshore cables at Jan De Nul, adding: “In 2013 we changed the power cable installation market by introducing our cable-laying vessel Isaac Newton with higher carrying capacities than available on the market. Today, we continue our pioneering entrepreneurship by ordering the world’s most advanced cable-laying vessel.”
Jan De Nul’s offshore installation fleet will count four cable-laying vessels, next to two offshore jack-up installation vessels, three floating crane installation vessels, five rock installation vessels and two multipurpose vessels.
