Introduction by Boskalis CEO Peter Berdowski
Dear Reader, The publication of this issue of our Creating New Horizons magazine also marks the end of 2022. A year that will go down in the books as a special year for Boskalis. The reason: after being listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange for more than half a century, Boskalis was delisted on 9 November and our company is now owned by HAL, which has already been our largest – and loyal – shareholder in the past decades. Despite the change of ownership, we will continue to operate as we have in the past.
Like everyone else, we were dealing with the aftermath of COVID-19 and despite the presence of the pandemic, we managed to execute innovative projects, acquire new ones and invest in new vessels that we intend to deploy to help shape the energy transition in the near future. One of the highlights in that respect is the successful commissioning of the Bokalift 2, our powerful and flexible crane vessel that we will deploy in the coming years to install offshore wind farms in Asia and North America. In addition, we expanded our offshore energy fleet with a number of versatile construction support vessels.
Expanding the fleet also brings with it the responsibility of keeping the vessels working. We do that, of course, with transport to and installation of offshore wind farms, but also by providing climate adaptive solutions in the field of coastal and riverbank protection. We keep coastlines throughout Europe in good condition with maintenance campaigns and reinforce dikes so they become climate-resilient. An excellent example in this regard is the Markermeer Dikes project where we are upgrading a centuries’ old dike that protects a large part of the Netherlands from flooding. In West Africa our colleagues are literally pushing back boundaries to call a halt to the coastal erosion due to rising sea levels that threatens coastal communities in parts of Togo and Benin. And although there was no marine salvage operation that attracted worldwide attention like last year’s refloating of the Ever Given, our Salvage colleagues – in collaboration with other Boskalis departments – once again managed to pull a large container vessel out of the clay.
With this attitude, we are continuing to play our role in the world. This also attracts new talent, like the large group of trainees we welcomed earlier this year. They feel very much connected to our company’s purpose of creating and protecting prosperity and advancing the energy transition.
I hope you enjoy reading this issue.
Let’s create new horizons together.
Peter Berdowski
CEO Boskalis
