With a turnover of around 2.5 billion Euro and approximately 4,500 employees, DEME Group was named ‘company of the year 2015.’ Yesterday during the FVP-House event, the fresh produce sector looked at a completely different sector: the world of dredging. DEME’s CEO Alain Bernard gave an account of the activities. Teamwork is one of the company’s main pillars. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” Bernard told those present from the fresh produce sector.
Alain Bernard of DEME.
Cooperating on the largest container terminal in the world
DEME cooperates on enormous projects, including the new Panama Canal. This will open officially at the end of June. The Panama Canal is one of the most important waterways in the world. Work on the extension of the canal started in September 2007, at a total cost of 4.55 billion Euro. The extension will double the capacity of the Panama Canal. Alain Bernard indicated that projects such as the Panama and Suez Canals are the cash cows of governments. In Singapore they are building the largest container terminal in the world, and DEME is also working on that. “When this is finished, the terminal will have a capacity of 65 million TEU. For comparison: the port of Antwerp has 9 million TEU. Partly due to all these large new projects, much will change logistically, in which each continent will play its own part.”
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Tunnel between Denmark and Germany
The Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link is a planned immersed tunnel between Denmark and Germany over the Fehmarn Belt. This connection has a planned length of 18.2 kilometres and should be opened in 2024. At the end of May, DEME and construction company CFE signed the conditional contracts with the Danish government about the design and construction of this submerged railway and road tunnel between Denmark and Germany. The total contract amounts to 3.4 billion Euro, 700 million Euro of which are for Belgian companies.
In recent years the dredging company focused on several new activities, and received challenging assignments involving global issues, such as rising sea levels, growing population and a shortage of resources.