A French-owned supply vessel has been rebuilt to take on subsea cable maintenance duties while a Singapore-based builder delivered a new crewboat to a repeat Malaysian customer. An Australian offshore operator will soon deploy a reflagged vessel to Taiwan, where it will support windfarm-related activities. Lastly, an order has been placed for a large crane vessel to be used in Chinese waters.
Alcatel welcomes refit vessel to cable maintenance fleet
France-based Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) recently added a new vessel to its cable maintenance fleet.
Ile de Molene is being operated by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA) to carry out maintenance on the submarine telecommunication cables of Alcatel's customers.
The vessel was originally built in 2006 for the offshore supply role. Conversion work was carried out at a shipyard in Gdansk, Poland.
Malaysia's Centus Marine takes delivery of fast crewboat
Malaysian operator Centus Marine recently took delivery of a new fast crewboat from Strategic Marine of Singapore.
The 42-metre Centus Eleven is of a bespoke design and is the fourth vessel delivered to the same operator in the last two years.
Three Cummins KTA50 engines deliver a cruising speed of 30 knots and a top speed in excess of 31 knots. Up to 100 personnel can be housed in a spacious business class cabin with reclining seats and luggage racks.
Other accommodation spaces include seven cabins with a total of 12 berths.
Chinese operator orders locally-built 186m floating crane
China State Shipbuilding Corporation's (CSSC) Shanghai Shipyard has been awarded a contract to design and build a new crane vessel for offshore installation and marine infrastructure works.
The DP2-equipped vessel will measure 186 by 48 metres and displace approximately 90,000 tonnes. The crane will be capable of lifting 4,000 tonnes up to a height of 145 metres above the vessel's main deck.
The vessel was ordered by an unnamed local customer.
MMA Offshore AHTS reflagged to Taiwan
MMA Offshore has confirmed that one of its anchor handling tug supply vessels (AHTS) has been reflagged to support offshore wind projects in Taiwan.
The reflagging of MMA Crystal was done following an extensive conversion program conducted on the vessel in early 2022. The conversion added a suite of new subsea support services to the AHTS including ROV, survey and subsea deployment/lifting capabilities.
The vessel will soon begin operations to install a floating LIDAR mooring in order to collect environmental data for wind farm developments. This will then be followed by a number of geophysical, geotechnical, and ROV work scopes in the region.
