Cammell Laird completes major conversion contract for Nexans

Cammell Laird managing director Linton Roberts said the yard had “pulled out all the stops” to complete the € 8 million fast track conversion and upgrade contract in two months for Nexans, the French-based cable manufacturer.

“The major element of the project was construction and insertion of a new 12.5m pre-fabricated hull section that has increased the overall length to 112.25m,” he said. “An accommodation module has also been built and installed taking the total number of single cabins on board to 60. We have further installed a new working deck complete with cable handling equipment that has increased the on deck storing capacity to 2,000m² from 900m². The upgrade has increased the ship’s deadweight from 7,886 tonnes to 9,373 tonnes. These modifications will allow the vessel to perform more extended cable laying operations as well as increasing her service life.”

Nexans’ umbilicals & submarine high voltage business group managing director Krister Granlie said the contract has increased the Skagerrak’s capability to carry out even larger scale power cable and umbilical installation projects, to meet the changing needs of customers in the subsea interconnector and oil & gas sectors.

“The Cammell Laird shipyard was selected for the Nexans Skagerrak upgrade project as Nexans regards it as a reputable company,” he said. “It also had the capacity available to suit Nexans’ programme and was competitive on price and conditions. Furthermore, the location of the shipyard in the UK fitted in well with the ship’s route to its next cable laying project in the North Sea.”

Cammell Laird’s chief executive John Syvret said the yard is hugely proud of the conversion and is keen to use its success to catapult the yard further into the international conversion market.