GIE Dragages Ports Take Delivery of TSHD

French owner GIE Dragages Ports recently took delivery of a 5,000 m3 TSHD (Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger), built at Spanish IZAR Gijon shipyard with yard number C365 and named Daniel Laval. This self-propelled trailing suction hopper dredger is intended to operate in water depths ranging from 1 to 3 meters under the keel, and mainly in the Seine river estuary and in Dunkerque, according to shipowner sources. The order was placed on May 24, 2000, and delivered on February 26th, taking 21 months to be built. Jacques Paul, member of the board of GIE Dragages Ports, told French magazine ŒLe Marin¹ that out of the shorlisted shipbuilders French Chantiers de l¹Atlantique, Netherlands¹ IHI Caland and Gijon yard the Spanish offer was technically superior although not the lowest in economic terms.