As Reuters rightly puts it, Dredgers are at the heart of global economic activity, from expanding ports to cater for more trade, and servicing oil and gas maritime infrastructure, to reclaiming land for coastal defence and real estate development. At the heart of the dredging industry lies these Belgian dredging majors namely Boskalis, VanOord, DEME, DJN etc. It is undoubtably said that despite the Chinese and American presence in the industry, the dominance of the Belgians in the dredging industry globally cannot be disputed.
Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering or shortly known as DEME specializes in the fields of dredging and land reclamation, offshore energy solutions, and environmental and infra marine works. DEME’s operations span to 5 continents. Being the pioneers in the field with 140 years of experience and with the intellectual resources acquired in the prolonged existence and the 5,200 plus highly skilled maritime professionals, DEME carves out success stories one after the other and does pull out near impossible feats of engineering otherwise thought to be superficial or out of the earth alien activity. DEME has literally left its signature across the world which can physically be seen from space. It’s a writer’s delight to write about DEME or the other Belgian majors for the fact that together they have created some of the world’s sophisticated yet coolest geographical wonders for the mankind.
Despite setbacks in the Russian Revolution (1917) and in the Second World War, and losing the entire fleet of Ackermans & van Haaren and Baggerwerken Decloedt & Zoon the founding companies which later formed DEME have always bounced back in style. The NEVER GIVE UP attitude of the Belgians are demonstrated here.
The roots of DEME is in dredging and marine technology but as the true global leader that they are, DEME has evolved and diversified over the years to become the one stop solution for the offshore energy sector (oil & gas and renewables), infra marine market and for environmental remediation. DEME strives to offer sustainable solutions for the global challenges of rising sea levels, a growing population, reduction of emissions, pollution and scarcity of natural resources.
With its headquarters in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, DEME has grown its international presence offering tailored solutions with innovative strategies and latest technologies. DEME proudly holds a modern and versatile fleet of 300 vessels some of which are the industry firsts when it comes to the technology deployed with each new vessel and equipment.
Open to new challenges DEME, has expanded its solution portfolio commendably over the years and strives to do so, which is seen in their continued investment in new technologies. As the global leader in environmental remediation DEME is focused on removing litter from the waterways. The core values of the company can be summed up in the word STRIVE: Safety, Technical leadership, Respect and integrity, Innovation, Value creation and Environment.
With a turnover of 2.62 billion Euros, DEME closely follows the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN planned at creating a better, more sustainable world by 2030. Leveraging their resources and expertise DEME aims at making a difference by tackling the challenges of the present day for a better tomorrow. Every two to three years DEME organizes an innovation drive aimed at digging out newer innovations from worldwide and the last driver was conducted in 2019 where 421 impressive ideas were presented, several of which later worked its way to reality.
Aimed at creating a better sustainable tomorrow, DEME is a true visionary who is channelising the resources to harness renewable energy sources. Apart from dredging and land reclamation it has diversified its activities to cater to infra-environmental works. Driven by the aim to strive for a better tomorrow DEME
way ahead in realizing their dream of creating better world
The Brussels-based civil engineering contractor CFE, under the ownership of the Belgian investment Group Ackermans & van Haaren is a main shareholder in DEME.
Various sources have been referred while writing this article.
