Dockwise Ltd. has been awarded to their subsidiary Dockwise Shipping for the transportation from China to New Caledonia of 18 onshore modules including an extended engineering and associated services scope. The contract was awarded by Hatch-Technip on behalf of Koniambo Nickel SAS, a joint venture owned by Xstrata Nickel and Société Minière du Sud Pacifique (SMSP). Hatch-Technip, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has been appointed as main contractor.
The transportation of the modules is scheduled for late 2009, early 2010 and will be performed as multiple consecutive voyages by the new Dockwise T-class vessels.
The modules fabricated in China, will be loaded at the yard of CNOOC's construction company COOEC at Qingdao, China. The modules will be offloaded in Vavouto, New Caledonia. The contract is one of the company's first large extended scope onshore industrial contracts. Presence in this market segment is one of the prime strategic objectives of Dockwise.
The value of the contract to Dockwise is approximately 22 million USD. Koniambo is one of the world's largest and highest-grade undeveloped nickel and laterite deposits. The planned smelter will have an annual production capacity of 60,000 tonnes of ferrous nickel alloy.