Cadeler Orders Two More Wind Installation Vessels In 930 Million Dollar Deal
Cadeler has signed firm contracts with COSCO Shipping Offshore at Qidong for two new T-class offshore wind installation vessels, in an order worth approximately 805 million euros, around 930.5 million dollars, in aggregate. The vessels are scheduled for delivery in 2030 and 2031, and the company says the agreement was secured on competitive commercial terms.
The order extends a relationship that has already produced several vessels for the same owner. Cadeler took delivery of its eleventh unit in July and operates what is generally recognised as the largest jack-up installation fleet in the offshore wind sector. The equity financing for the T-class programme was raised earlier this year, and the company says it is already in discussions with key clients about where the new vessels will be deployed.
The chief executive described the investment as a reflection of the company's commitment to staying ahead of future customer requirements, delivering technical solutions of the highest standard and raising the bar in offshore wind installation. He characterised the T-class as the largest and most capable vessels ever introduced to the market, designed to handle increasingly complex projects with greater efficiency, versatility and performance, and said the company was pleased to continue a collaboration with the yard built over several years.
No technical specifications have been released. Cadeler has not disclosed crane capacity, jacking system, deck area or the turbine size the vessels are designed to handle, and none of those figures appear in the company's announcement. That reticence is itself informative in a segment where installation capability is usually the headline claim, and it suggests the design is still being finalised against turbine platforms that the manufacturers have not yet frozen.
The commercial logic rests on a bet about turbine size. Installation vessels are built against the machines they will erect, and each generation of larger turbine strips capability from the existing fleet, since a crane that cannot reach the required height at the required radius is simply unable to do the work. Ordering for delivery at the turn of the decade means committing capital now against turbine dimensions that will not be settled for several years, which is why the largest owners in the segment order early and specify late. Whether that judgement pays depends on whether European and Asian auction volumes hold up long enough to keep a fleet of this size employed.
