Boskalis — Company directory

Dutch dredging and marine contractor that builds ports, coastal defences and offshore energy infrastructure, and installs subsea cables, foundations and rock.

Royal Boskalis B.V. is a Dutch dredging and marine contractor with its head office at Rosmolenweg 20 in Papendrecht, Netherlands. The group describes itself as operating in 70 countries across six continents with roughly 400 vessels and floating equipment and more than 11,000 employees, working in dredging and inland infrastructure, offshore energy, towage and salvage.

Roots in Dutch hydraulic engineering

Boskalis traces its origins to a dredging firm in Sliedrecht and states that it has more than 115 years of experience in hydraulic engineering, coastal protection and land reclamation. Its own history page cites a major role in the Dutch Delta Works in 1953, a stock exchange listing in 1971 and the conferral of the Royal designation in 1978, followed by international work including the Oresund link and Hong Kong International Airport in the 1990s.

Growth since 2010 has come largely through acquisition: heavy marine transport specialist Dockwise in 2013, ocean towage provider Fairmount Marine in 2014, the remaining shares of offshore cable installer VBMS in 2016, UK survey group Gardline in 2017, a 62.5 percent stake in the UAE-based Horizon Group in 2019, the subsea services business of Rever Offshore in 2021 and the outstanding shares of terminal services provider Smit Lamnalco in 2024. Dockwise, VBMS and Fairmount were brought under the single Boskalis brand during 2018. HAL Investments, which already held more than 95 percent of the shares, took the company private and the shares were delisted from Euronext Amsterdam in November 2022.

Business divisions and what they cover

Dredging and Inland Infra - construction and maintenance of ports and waterways, land reclamation, coastal defence and riverbank protection, plus dry infrastructure such as roads and immersed tunnels.
Offshore Energy - marine survey and geotechnical work, seabed intervention and subsea rock installation, heavy marine transport, offshore heavy lifting, subsea cables and inspection, repair and maintenance for oil, gas and wind assets.
Towage - port towage and terminal services, including berthing and unberthing of tankers at oil and LNG terminals, largely through Smit Lamnalco.
Salvage - emergency response, wreck removal and pollution prevention through SMIT, whose response centres in Rotterdam, Houston, Cape Town, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, Macae, Mumbai and Gujarat provide a round-the-clock link to vessels and agents.

Cable installation and fleet investment

In May 2026 Boskalis announced an order for a high-capacity cable lay vessel with two 12,000 tonne carousels, one of them concentric, intended for long continuous cable sections on HVDC interconnectors and offshore wind transmission. The vessel is expected to enter service in 2029. The company says it has more than 15 years of subsea cable experience on over 140 cable-related projects and currently operates three cable lay vessels plus a trenching support vessel and trenching equipment, alongside its trailing suction hopper dredgers, cutter suction dredgers and subsea rock installation vessels.

Financial performance

Boskalis no longer publishes quarterly trading updates as a listed company, but its key figures page gives revenue of EUR 4,457 million for 2025, EBITDA of EUR 1,336 million, an operating result of EUR 886 million and net profit of EUR 775 million, with an order book of EUR 7,004 million at year-end. Revenue rose from EUR 2,957 million in 2021 to EUR 4,457 million in 2025, while EBITDA more than doubled over the same period.

First half 2026 revenue: EUR 1.90 billion (first half 2025: EUR 2.35 billion)
First half 2026 EBITDA: EUR 553 million (first half 2025: EUR 748 million)
First half 2026 net profit: EUR 275 million (first half 2025: EUR 426 million)
Order book at 30 June 2026: EUR 6.8 billion (end 2025: EUR 7.0 billion)

In the half-year report published on 20 August 2026, chief executive Theo Baartmans linked the lower figures to geopolitical uncertainty and a weaker appetite among clients to award projects, while pointing to strong execution on offshore wind and oil and gas work. Lower fleet utilisation in dredging was concentrated in Asia and the Middle East.

Recent contracts and projects

July 2026: Boskalis and Van Oord were awarded the Malmporten dredging contract for the expansion of the Port of Lulea in Sweden, valued at approximately EUR 500 million and split equally, for the Swedish Maritime Administration and the Port of Lulea. About 14 million cubic metres of material are to be dredged in ice-free seasons from spring 2027, finishing before mid-August 2030, deepening the fairway for vessels of up to 14.7 metres draft.
April 2026: first remotely operated vehicle deployment from a new Remote Operations Centre in Aberdeen.
February 2026: contract for the inter-array cable system at the Gennaker offshore wind farm.
In its home market the group reports continuing work on the Markermeerdijken and Meanderende Maas flood protection schemes and on widening of the A2 motorway between Het Vonderen and Kerensheide.

Organisation and contact

The contact page carries a searchable network of just over 100 branch offices grouped by continent, country and city, plus the head office switchboard on +31 78 6969 000. Published departmental addresses include [email protected] for dredging and infrastructure enquiries, [email protected] for offshore energy, [email protected] for corporate communications and news releases, and [email protected] for media assistance. Salvage emergencies are handled by SMIT, reachable on +31 10 4549911 or [email protected].