Jan De Nul Awarded Port of Guayaquil’s Access Channel Dredging PPP
In mid-September, Jan De Nul was awarded a 25-year maintenance dredging Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract with the Port of Guayaquil, the company said in a press release. The project covers a 95-kilometer (59-mile) access channel area and will enable the Port of Guayaquil to offer competitive logistics solutions. Jan De Nul said it will deepen the existing access channel from 9.6 meters (31.4 feet) to 12.5 meters (41 feet).
The mayor of Guayaquil, Jaime Nebot, welcomed the PPP. “This is a major project, which won’t cost a penny to either the Ecuadorian government, the people, or the city,” Nebot said.
In exchange for its deepening and maintenance dredging service, Jan De Nul will charge vessels a $0.62 US gross register tonnage (GRT) tariff, IDR has learned.
Jan De Nul said it would use three hopper dredges and one cutter suction dredge for deepening and maintenance works. It hasn’t, however, named which dredges it would use.
“Jan De Nul will also remove the rock in the offshore section of the channel, the famous bottleneck known as Los Goles, for which a large seagoing cutter suction dredge will be mobilized. Further obligations include the installation of a state of the art Vessel Traffic Service system, a traffic control and toll collection system, as well as the dredging of the Canal Fluvial section on the Guayas River,” the company said.
Once it completes deepening works, which it expects to achieve over the project’s first year, it will operate and then maintain the channel under a “25-year performance-based” concession contract.
Ecuadorian media said Jan De Nul could start the dredging contract as soon as January 2019.
Jan De Nul said both deepening and maintenance would be financed by “Jan De Nul Group and recuperated by tolls.”
BIDDERS
On December 2, 2016, the City of Guayaquil was awarded responsibility for designing and tendering deepening and maintenance dredging for the local Port of Guayaquil along its entire access channel. As such, an agreement was signed with the City of Guayaquil, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Transports and Public Works, and the nation’s Sub-secretariat of Ports, Fluvial and Maritime Transports.
The tender was approved on March 26. On July 24, several companies bid for the 25-year contract.
Bidders included Boskalis International B.V, Jan De Nul B.V; Van Oord & Marine Contractors B.V, as well as the Consorcio Canal Guayaquil consortium. The latter was made up of DEME Group’s Dredging International Mexico SA CV, China Road and Bridge Corporation and Transoceanica Cia Ltda.
In a later phase, on September 17 this year, only Jan De Nul and Consorcio Canal Guayauquil qualified to submit final economic proposals.
Consorcio Canal Guayaquil offered a $0.68 US gross register tonnage (GRT) tariff, according to a tender document accessed by IDR.
Ecuadorian Maritime Chamber, CAMAE, has long urged for dredging at Port of Guayaquil’s access channel.
The City of Guayaquil plans to get a $33 million US loan from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), according to data released by the country’s Ministry of Transports and Public Works. The investment would cover what the ministry has labeled as a “Port Development Plan” for the Port of Guayaquil.
PORT OF MANTA DREDGING
Jan De Nul was also awarded earlier this year dredging at the Ecuadorian Port of Manta, following a crowded tender last year, which was awarded to Envisan, the environmental division of the Jan de Nul Group.
Local Port Authority Autoridad Portuaria de Manta (APM) said at the time Envisan was expected to dredge the access channel as well as the port’s four berths.
The project will help the port increase demand, as it currently operates only berth No. 4.
APM expects to bring the port’s depth to 12.5 meters (41.01 feet).
APM said in October of this year that works near the port’s berths have started. Dredging was expected for September, according to a previous APM forecast.
APM didn’t release a new forecast for dredging works to begin.
The Ecuadorian Port of Manta was last dredged between 1998 and 1999 on an 18-month project. APM said the project will last four months and should extract 600,000 cubic meters (xxx cubic yards) of sediments. Jan de Nul is using backhoe dredge Postnik Yakovlev, trailing suction hopper dredge Pedro Alvares Cabral and split hopper barges Astrolabe and Concepcion.
