TI Group's John Crane-Lips Wins $20 Million Cable Laying Contracts
7 November 2000
TI Group's John Crane-Lips Wins $20 Million Cable Laying Contracts
NEW YORK--Nov. 6, 2000--TI Group's world leading marine division, John Crane-Lips, has won contracts worth $20 million to supply a comprehensive package of telecoms cable-laying equipment, propulsion systems and hull seals for the joint venture between Alcatel, the world's leading supplier of fibre-optics cable, and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs.The contract is for three cable-laying vessels under construction by Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in Korea. This latest win follows an (pound)8m contract last December from Global Marine Systems, a division of Global Crossing, to fit five ships with equipment to lay subsea internet cables around the world.
Rapid growth in internet and international data traffic has created urgent demand for new telecommunications capacity and the need for extra cable-laying ships. John Crane-Lips has a strong level of expertise in electric cable-laying, to the extent that around two-thirds of cable-laying ships in service today use John Crane-Lips equipment.
John Crane-Lips will supply the Alcatel and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs joint venture from three Centres of Excellence in the UK, Netherlands and Asia.
Cable handling equipment supplied by John Crane-Lips from its facility in Wolverhampton, UK, comprises drum engines, linear cable engines and the electronic management systems to control paying out the cable. It includes, additionally, the plough handling system responsible for the deployment and recovery of the seabed plough that trenches and buries the cable.
For each vessel, John Crane-Lips is also supplying two electric powered propellers and five thrusters from Drunen in the Netherlands, along with Airguard anti-pollution hull sealing systems.
Commenting on the new contracts, John Cousins, chief executive of John Crane-Lips, said: "Our ability to supply a total package of first class engineering systems, covering cable-laying equipment, propulsion systems and hull sealing, and to co-ordinate the supply through three Centres of Excellence around the world, reinforces the strong position of John Crane-Lips in the growing market for cable-laying equipment."
John Crane-Lips is a world leader in marine propulsion systems, providing a complete onboard propulsion and sealing service for the commercial and naval fleets of the world. Products include hull, propeller shaft and onboard sealing systems, together with Lips propellers, shafts, waterjets, thrusters and control systems. John Crane-Lips also has niche leadership position in precision cable handling systems. In June 2000, it concluded an alliance with Wartsila NSD, a world leading supplier of marine engines, to supply total marine propulsion systems to the shipbuilding industry.
John Crane-Lips, with over 1,000 employees, has four operational Centres of Excellence in Drunen, Netherlands; Havant, UK; Toyama, Japan; and Wolverhampton, UK and there are six secondary manufacturing sites in Europe and the US. The Centres of Excellence support a global sales and service network.