Brazil: Van Oord and Boskalis awarded dredging contract Santos Port

The Brazilian Ministry of Transport, Ports and Civil Aviation has awarded a contract to Boskalis and joint venture partner Van Oord for the capital and maintenance dredging of the port of Santos, the largest port of South America. The total value for the joint venture is approximately € 110 million.

The studies will be done in the coming months and the design of the navigation channels and berths of the port will be reviewed. The dredging operations are expected to start later this year with the deployment of various trailing suction hopper dredgers and a backhoe dredger. The dredging activities are expected to be completed in 2018.

The ports of Brazil represents 90% of the total exports of the country, and one billion tones of goods are moved each year. The port of Santos is responsible for almost 30% of the total foreign trade in Brazil, and is the main key for exporting Brazilian produced goods (grain, fruit, iron ore, oil etc..)