Interview: Hansel to deliver 25 sets of dredgers in 2021

Hansel marine, a Chinese company involved in the production of dredgers and dredging equipment, has reported a very busy 2020, filled with lots of activities, challenges and also great accomplishments.

Hansel photo

Enough reasons for Dredging Today to catch up with Mr. Alex Tong, Dredging and Shipbuilding Specialist, Sales and Marketing Director at Hansel Marine, to review the business highlights from this year and discuss the impact they project for the next period.

Q: As an introduction to some of our readers who are not familiar with your company, what can you tell us about your business, the beginnings and where is Hansel Marine today?

Hansel Marine is a Chinese leading manufacturer and contractor with the genes for both dredging and shipbuilding. The beginning of the company is a Chinese domestic dredging engineering company established in early of this century. Our staffs have long experience working in dredgers from world first-class manufacturer, such as IHC.

After years of development, in year of 2009 we began to build the dredgers by ourselves. In year of 2016, merged with an experienced shipyard, Hansel established our own manufacturing base and R&D center.

Hansel photo

Nowadays, in addition to Chinese domestic market, our products have entered several main markets of the world, such as Middle-East, Africa, East-Europe, Southeast Asia, etc. We expect to build and deliver more than 25 sets of dredgers in next year.

We will always focus on providing first-class dredging machineries of shipbuilding and marine standard with match European quality and lower cost for our global clients.

Q: Which markets are currently in the focus of your company, and do you have plans to expand your business areas?

Currently, the Middle-East market, especially the Egyptian market is one of our key markets. We have set up our local office and the team there, including both Chinese and local staffs, to provide services for our clients.

Besides, we think the Southeast Asia market, including the Indian market will also be the important market for us. We will pay close attention to and strive to develop the market in the next years.

Of course, the Chinese domestic market will always be our base and we will continue to maintain our position.

Hansel photo

Q: Hansel Marine recently delivered two sets of HS-55 series cutter suction dredgers (CSDs) to Egypt. Our readers would like to find out more about this project?

Actually, we have delivered 8 sets of HS-55 series CSDs to different clients in Egypt, in which 4 sets are delivered in this year of 2020. Our dredgers are now working in Manzala Lake area close to Said Port, and some other lakes close to Alexandria City. At present, more CSDs are under construction or in discussion with our Egyptian clients.

We are glad that this type of CSD is very popular here. The reason of our success is very simple and direct: Performance and Quality.

Since our first dredger arrived at Manzala Lake, we also sent our crew and engineers working onboard for our client. The 22” CSD can reach the output capacity of 800~900 M3 per hour, and more than 350,000 M3 per month in average. This performance is even better than the similar size of European or U.S. made dredgers here.

Many clients came to visit our dredgers, and they have given full praise to the performance and quality of our products. Nowadays, our products and services are already gained good reputation here, and many new clients are in discussion with us for their newbuilding projects.

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Q: Overall, 2020 was challenging around the globe in many ways, how did you sail through that period?

Yes, it’s true we are all facing great challenges in the year of 2020. In the beginning of this year, when China began to take strict shut-down orders, our production had to stop, and the employees had to work at home. Afterwards, the epidemic situation in the whole world was becoming more and more serious, we have to fact more difficulties, such as the international travelling, project suspension, etc.

Anyway, we think the worst moment is over now, and we believe the saying “The darkest hour is that before the dawn”.

Q: What is your opinion about current dredging market in your country?

In China, the current dredging market is good, especially in the second half of this year, the government has approved many public infrastructure projects to stimulate the economic development, including many civil dredging projects in rivers and lakes. Therefore, the market of the small and medium sized dredgers is very good in this year. However, because there are not many large projects, the large dredgers and machineries are not so busy recently.

Hansel photo

Q: What are your most important goals and business plans for the upcoming period?

As mentioned, we expect to build and deliver more than 25 sets of dredgers in next year, most of the contracts are already inked or in discussion with our clients.

Secondly, we plan to strengthen our relations with the main venders, such as the diesel engine, dredge pump, hydraulic components, etc, and will take the lead to the cooperation between the venders and some research institutions, such as the colleges, the design firms, etc, so that we can develop and optimize the main equipment of our dredging projects. We have achieved some results in the dredge pump optimal design which is already applied in our new HS-55 dredgers.

In addition, we are also doing some feasibility investigations, together with our partners, to study the possibilities of establishing the factories abroad. Due to the epidemics, the plan is not going very fast, however, we will keep going forward.