| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Dredging and Marine Services, Land Reclamation, Civil Engineering, Offshore Services, Environmental Services |
| Founded | 1938 |
| Founder(s) | Jan De Nul |
| Headquarters | Aalst, Belgium and Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Jan Pieter De Nul (Chairman) |
| Revenue | €253,227,963.64 (2009) |
| Employees | 5,000 (2009) |
| Website | www.jandenul.com |
Jan De Nul Group is a family-owned Belgian company, with the financial headquarters in Luxembourg, 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.[1]
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Originally founded in 1938, in Hofstade near Aalst, Belgium, 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.[2] It is one of the four largest dredging companies in the world, together with Dutch companies Royal Boskalis Westminster and Van Oord, and fellow Belgians DEME.[3]
Jan De Nul was voted the most attractive employer of Belgium in February 2009.[4]
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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]
Major projects realised in part or whole by Jan De Nul include the Panama Canal expansion project[8], the Bridgetown Port enhancement project[9], the Port Botany expansion[10], the Manifa Field Causeway and Island Project in Saudi Arabia,[11] the Palm Jebel Ali artificial island in Dubai[1], and the adjacent Dubai Waterfront.[6]
In April 2009, the Jan De Nul vessel "Pompei" was hijacked by Somali pirates on route from Aden to the Seychelles. 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.[12]