Sif and Port of Rotterdam agree on 20 ha additional land lease

Sif Holding n.v. and Port of Rotterdam have agreed on the lease of an additional 20 hectares industrial land, adjacent to Sif’s existing operations at Maasvlakte 2 near Rotterdam. This expansion facilitates Sif’s new business opportunity in response to demand from new and existing clients for marshalling space and onshore support services for offshore wind. This demand is underpinned by the agreement between Sif and DEME Offshore for a major contract on marshalling services starting October 2019.

Sif has leased approximately 42 ha land at Maasvlakte 2 since 2015 for a 25-year period. On this land, Sif realized its assembly facility that was taken into operation in 2016. Increasing client demand for marshalling services has propelled this 20 ha expansion agreement which has an expiration date parallel to the already leased 42 ha. The location is well situated for new offshore wind projects (1 hour steaming to open sea and short sailing distances to new windfarms in the French-Belgian-UK and Dutch waters) and the already worldclass quay facilities will be expanded by 200 meters by mid 2023. The quay will have a guaranteed nautical depth of 16.5m NAP, allows close-to-quay jacking and offers surface load of 10 Kn/m2.

For offshore wind construction services, contractors require storage and handling services like cranage and transportation. For DEME Offshore’s Borssele 1+2 project, 47 monopiles, 94 transition pieces and 94 anode cages will be shipped to Maasvlakte 2 from Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom to be assembled and prepared for offshore construction.

Sif will facilitate DEME Offshore and future clients with SPMT’s, gantry cranes, crawler cranes and telescopic cranes for onsite transportation and marshalling activities from our MV2 location. Double digit million-euro annual revenues are expected from this activity within 2 to 3 years.

The lease agreement and hand- over between Port of Rotterdam and Sif Holding of the additional 20 hectares land was formalized on 31 July 2019. The equipment for marshalling services is leased by Sif on a project- specific basis.

Port of Rotterdam CEO Allard Castelein: "We are proud of the success of SIF Group in our port. Since the arrival of SIF Group in 2015, Rotterdam has been successful in strengthening its position in offshore wind. This expansion will enable this leading player in the market to develop even further. It confirms our policy of stimulating offshore wind and other offshore industry as an important growth market and to use our expertise, space and development strength to further this growth."

Sif Holding CEO Fred van Beers: "This 20 Ha extension perfectly fits our strategy to expand our services to the offshore wind industry with complex marshalling and terminal activities for offshore wind. This additional lease agreement is a further proof of our believe in the strong bond between Port of Rotterdam and SIF. We foresee a structural demand for these services and are proud to be selected by Deme Offshore who is our launching customer for these marshalling services when preparing and realizing their offshore wind project Borssele I-II."