Dutch dredging and marine services group Boskalis has placed an order for a new high capacity cable laying vessel, adding to one of the busiest CLV fleets in the offshore wind and interconnector market. The vessel is scheduled to enter service in 2029.
The newbuild will carry two 12,000 tonne cable carousels, including a concentric carousel layout. That configuration lets crews install longer continuous cable sections, which cuts the number of costly offshore joints and improves long term cable integrity.
Boskalis is targeting the high voltage direct current interconnector segment and offshore wind export cable work, where project sizes and route lengths keep climbing. The company already operates three CLVs and a trenching support vessel, and says it has worked on more than 140 subsea cable projects over the past 15 years.
Cable laying capacity has become one of the tightest bottlenecks in the energy transition build out. Every new HVDC link between countries and every large offshore wind farm depends on a small global pool of specialist vessels, and yards are quoting multiyear waits for new units, which is pushing developers to lock in CLV slots well ahead of final investment decisions.