? uctuations in the world’s economy, the dredging industry’s million cubic meters of material dredged has now completed, turnover in 2015 (excluding the “closed markets” of China but other projects still provide work for the major internation-and U.S.) increased to €7.115 billion compared to €6.415 bil- al players. The large port projects have bene? ted from funding lion in 2014 – mainly as a result of the sizable Suez Canal sourced from the large international development banks.expansion project (€1.1 billion).” The biggest projects can be seen by tracking the ? eet of Jan The Suez Canal expansion, a major demand driver with 180 De Nul, a large Belgian contractor with noteworthy units, in-cluding Cristóbal Colón and Leiv Eriks-son, trailing suction hopper units with a “Donjon was built based upon the simple prin-capacity of 46,000 cubic meters (equiv-ciple that you do the work you are capable of alent to the cargo intake of a Handysize bulk carrier), working on a reclamation with, for the most part, equipment that you own. project where a Free Trade Zone is be-We look to add equipment based upon need and ing expanded at Lagos, Nigeria (funded our ability to purchase what we need. Debt, while by Chinese development banks). The a simple fact of life, is something that we try Vasco da Gama, with a capacity of very hard to aggressively manage.”33,000 cubic meters, has been deployed – John Witte, Jr., at in the construction of a new port at an executive at U.S. dredger, DonjonNador, Morocco funded by the Europe-Credit: Van Oordwww.maritimelogisticsprofessional.com 17I