On 17 April, Empire Offshore Wind LLC has informed Sif and the market that it will halt offshore construction in waters of the outer continental shelf for the Empire Wind project following a notification from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).  

Equinor’s press release:
Equinor suspends offshore construction activities for the Empire Wind project

Sif will continue to manufacture foundations for Empire Offshore Wind LLC according to the contract. Sif and the Empire Wind 1 project team will continue the pragmatic and constructive partnership cooperation on this project and dialogue on effects of changes to the contract.

About Empire Wind 1 Offshore Wind 1 refers to the Offshore Wind Farm in the state of New York. The federal lease for Empire Wind was signed with the US Administration in 2017. Empire Wind 1 has validly secured all necessary federal and state permits and is currently under construction. The project is being developed under contract with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to provide an important new source of electricity for the State of New York. The construction phase has put more than 1,500 people to work in the US. Empire wind 1 has the potential to power 500,000 New York homes. Equinor’s ownership to Empire is held through the Equinor Wind US LLC.

About Sif Holding Sif supports and accelerates the growth of offshore wind power generation as a key driver to the energy transition by offering total solutions for the design and production of foundations for offshore wind farms, including logistics services and marshalling. Sif traditionally serves the markets of Northwestern Europe and is working on a global presence. Sif combines two highly automated and flexible production facilities in Roermond and Rotterdam (Second Maasvlakte) with technological leadership in the field of rolling and welding of heavy steel plates, based on 75 years of experience and innovative self developed techniques and processes. Sif mainly produces monopiles, transition parts and piles with which jacket foundations for wind turbines can be anchored in the seabed.

ScottishPower Renewables has signed the contracts with Sif Netherlands for the supply of 64 monopiles, and with a joint venture between Sif and Smulders for the supply of 64 transition pieces. 

The monopiles will be manufactured in Sif’s newly expanded production facilities at Maasvlakte 2 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The transition pieces will be manufactured in Sif’s production facilities in Roermond, the Netherlands (primary steel) and Smulders’ production facilities in Hoboken, Belgium (outfitting). The monopiles and transition pieces will be loaded out to the foundation installation or transport vessels from Sif’s Maasvlakte 2 deepsea quay.

The announcement comes just weeks after ScottishPower Renewables £4 billion East Anglia TWO offshore windfarm was successful in the new UK Government’s Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6 (AR6) in September 2024. East Anglia TWO will be located almost 33 kilometres off the Suffolk coast and is expected to supply up to 960 MW of offshore wind energy, enough to power the equivalent of almost one million homes each year.

Production of the monopiles and transition pieces will start in the second half of 2026. The project was already in Sif’s and Smulders’s order books for 2026 under exclusive negotiations and is now final, bringing Sif’s order book for 2026 to 210 kilotonnes in firm contracts.

Charlie Jordan, ScottishPower Renewables CEO said: “It’s great to confirm this important contract with Sif and Smulders so soon after East Anglia TWO’s Contracts for Difference success and we’re really pleased to welcome them to our East Anglia supply chain family. This will allow us to continue to move at pace to bring this vital project to life and powering cleaner and greener lives for years to come.”

 Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif Holding: “With our state of the art monopile production facilities, our strategic position in Rotterdam and our deep-sea quays with 24/7 access for the most modern installation vessels, we offer ScottishPower Renewables excellent conditions for a safe and efficient installation campaign. We thank ScottishPower Renewables for the trust and the open exchange of ideas in the preliminary phase. This contributed highly to the speed in which the capacity reservation agreement for this project, that was already included in our order book for 140 kilotonnes, could be converted into a final contract. We look forward to a continued constructive execution phase of this great contract.” 

Raf Iemants, Managing Director of Smulders: "Smulders is proud to collaborate with Sif and ScottishPower Renewables on the East Anglia TWO offshore wind farm project. This partnership underscores our commitment to delivering high-quality, sustainable solutions for the offshore wind market. We look forward to contributing our expertise to ensure the successful completion of this significant project."

Execution of the works is foreseen for 2026. This will increase Sif’s orderbook for 2026 to 210 kilotonnes.

After the signing of a capacity reservation agreement on 1 July 2024, Equinor and Polenergia owned joint venture companies leading the development of the Bałtyk 2&3 offshore wind farms, located in the Baltic Sea, have now signed a final contract with the consortium of Smulders Projects Belgium NV and Sif Netherlands BV, for the manufacturing of 100 Transition Pieces for both projects.

Bałtyk 2&3 are two separate projects with planned installed capacity of 720 MW each (jointly 1440 MW). The offshore wind farms will be installed in Polish exclusive economic zone of the Baltic Sea and are subject to Polish regulatory regime. The wind farms are located approximately 37 km (Bałtyk 2) and 22 km (Bałtyk 3) off the Polish coast.

The scope of work for the consortium of Smulders and Sif consists of fabrication of the Transition Pieces including shop design, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning.

Within the consortium Sif will manufacture the approximately 30 kton primary steel tubulars, including flanges, from their facility in Roermond, The Netherlands. Smulders will perform the secondary steel scope, coating, electrical system and testing and commissioning. The secondary steel scope will be produced by the Polish facilities of Smulders. Final assembly will take place at the yard in Hoboken, Belgium. Manufacturing works are scheduled for 2025.

795 MW clean energy

OranjeWind will be located almost 53 kilometers off the coast of IJmuiden and is expected to supply approximately 795 MW of offshore wind energy. To enable full system integration, OranjeWind will combine offshore wind with electrolysis capacity for the production of green hydrogen and other flexible demand solutions such as e-boilers and battery storage, as well as floating solar panels and subsea battery storage for more efficient use of offshore space.

Enhanced offshore installation safety and efficiency

As in previous projects for the Hollandse Kust wind farms, no transition pieces are used which will enhance offshore installation safety and efficiency. Components such as ladders, boat moorings, access platforms and internal platforms are installed and connected at sea after the installation of the monopiles. The supply by Sif of these components is part of the same contract. In total, this will involve a production of 53 monopile foundations with a total weight of approximately 76 kilotons. The project was already in Sif's order book as a project under exclusive negotiations. The planned start of production is foreseen in the first quarter of 2026.

Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif Holding: “With our state-of-the-art monopile production facilities, our strategic position in Rotterdam and our deep-sea quays with 24/7 access for the most modern installation vessels, we offer OranjeWind excellent conditions for a safe and efficient installation campaign. We thank the OranjeWind project team for the trust and the open exchange of ideas in the tender phase and look forward to a continued constructive execution phase of this great contract.”

About Sif Holding

Sif supports and accelerates the growth of offshore wind power generation as a key driver to the energy transition by offering total solutions for the design and production of foundations for offshore wind farms, including logistics services and marshalling. Sif traditionally serves the markets of Northwestern Europe and is working on a global presence. Sif combines two highly automated and flexible production facilities in Roermond and Rotterdam (Second Maasvlakte) with technological leadership in the field of rolling and welding of heavy steel plates, based on 75 years of experience and innovative self-developed techniques and processes. Sif mainly produces monopiles, transition parts and piles with which jacket foundations for wind turbines can be anchored in the seabed.

Bałtyk 2&3 are two separate projects with planned installed capacity of 720 MW each (jointly 1440 MW). The offshore wind farms will be installed in Polish exclusive economic zone of the Baltic Sea and are subject to Polish regulatory regime. The wind farms are located approximately 37 km (Bałtyk 2) and 22 km (Bałtyk 3) off the Polish coast.

The scope of work for the consortium of Smulders and Sif consists of fabrication of the Transition Pieces including shop design, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning.

Within the consortium Sif will manufacture the approximately 30 kton primary steel tubulars, including flanges, from their facility in Roermond, The Netherlands. Smulders will perform the secondary steel scope, coating, electrical system and testing and commissioning. The secondary steel scope will be produced by the Polish facilities of Smulders. Final assembly will take place at the yard in Hoboken, Belgium.

Please open PDF attached for full version 

Sif will be responsible for the manufacturing of the 52 extended monopile foundations that will have no transition pieces, but secondary steel components, and that will have a total weight of approximately 70 kilotonnes. Transition piece-less monopiles were successfully applied by Sif in earlier projects offshore the Netherlands, also in the Hollandse Kust Noord project for Crosswind, another joint venture of Shell and Eneco (see picture below). In this transition piece-less design, the secondary steel components like boat-landings, ladders, main access platforms and internal platforms, will be connected to the monopile foundations once these are installed at sea. The secondary steel components will also be delivered by Sif in the same contract.

A new ecological standard

Ecowende, together with partners such as Sif, intends to set a new ecological standard for building and operating wind farms in the North Sea, with minimal impact on the natural habitat of birds, bats and marine mammals, and with a thriving underwater world.

Folkert Visser, CEO and Project Director Ecowende: ”Building a wind farm in harmony with nature is an important condition for eventually achieving the ambition of 70 GW of offshore wind energy by 2050, within the ecological limits of the North Sea. Ecowende will implement various innovations and larger-scale measures to mitigate the negative effects of the wind farm on the local ecology and to stimulate positive effects. For Sif, this implies for example that the monopiles are designed for low noise installation methods and that they can support various wildlife detection and monitoring devices, above and below the water line.”

Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif Holding: ”We are proud for again being valued for our efficiency in delivering monopile foundations for an entire offshore wind farm within a relatively short timeframe and for the strategic position of our manufacturing facilities in Rotterdam. We are grateful that Ecowende has selected Sif for both the fabrication of the extended monopiles foundations as well as the secondary steel components, for a single point of delivery at our Maasvlakte facility. When Van Oord’s new-age installation vessel Boreas will berth at our Maasvlakte facility for the load out of the project, we will have all 52 monopile foundations with their secondary steel components finished and in storage at our site. This is a significant de-risking of the project for both Ecowende and Sif. The fact that Sif has been involved in the manufacturing and supply of foundations for almost all the wind farms in the Dutch North Sea means we have built up a wealth of knowledge over the past 20 years in this specific market."

ABOUT SIF HOLDING N.V.

Sif is a total solutions provider for design engineering and excellent manufacturing of offshore foundations for wind farms, including logistics and marshalling services. Sif traditionally serves the North-Western European markets and is exploring its global presence. Sif combines two highly automated and flexible production facilities in Roermond and Rotterdam (Tweede Maasvlakte) with technology leadership in rolling and welding of heavy steel plates, which is based on 75 years of experience and innovative in-house developed techniques and processes. Sif primarily produces monopiles, transition pieces and piles that are used to anchor jacket foundations in the seabed for offshore wind turbines.

Ecowende and Hollandse Kust (west)
The wind farm to be constructed by Ecowende (a joint venture between Shell and Eneco) at Hollandse Kust (west) wind farm site VI will be located approximately 53 kilometres off the Dutch coast at IJmuiden. The operational capacity of some 760 MW means Ecowende will be able to generate enough renewable energy to meet around 3% of current demand for electricity in the Netherlands. The intention is that the wind farm will be brought into use in 2026. Click here for more information about Ecowende, including a full list of innovations and ecological measures.

Once finalized, this will be the first contract under the terms of the strategy collaboration agreement that Sif and Equinor have entered in relation to the expansion project Sif has embarked on. The monopiles will be manufactured in 2025-2026 and have an estimated production volume of approximately 105 kton.

Baltyk II and III are two offshore wind projects in the Polish Baltic Sea envisaging a total installed capacity of potentially 1.440 MW. Bałtyk II and III cover a combined area of approximately 240 square kilometers located between 22 km and 37 km from the coast. The water depths range from around 25 to 40 meters.

Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif Holding: “It is great to witness this next chapter of the successful cooperation Sif and Equinor have developed over the years and that has materialized in the recently signed framework agreement. We are also happy to welcome Polenergia as a new potential customer. We very much look forward to jointly help develop this huge wind farm that can provide more than 2 million Polish households with green electricity and will be another significant contributor to the EU energy transition program.”

CONTACT

For further information, please contact:

The grid capacity of the He Dreiht offshore wind farm is 900 MW, operating 64 Vestas 15 MW turbines. The Wind Farm is located within the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the North Sea, about 90 kilometers north of the Borkum Island and 110 kilometers west of the Helgoland Island.

Full commissioning of the wind farm is expected in the second half of 2025.

Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif comments; “We are grateful for the confidence EnBW has expressed in their award of this project to Sif. We will put every effort in place to support EnBW and their contract partners in turning the He Dreiht project into a success. For Sif this valuable order, which was already included in our orderbook as a project under exclusive negotiation, is an important contributor to a stable order backlog till mid-2024. Our total orderbook now has approximately 250 Kton firm orders and 20 Kton projects in exclusive negotiations for the period 2023-2024. We expect that the total production in 2023 will be approximately 200 Kton.”

Raf Iemants, Managing Director of Smulders says: “We are proud to be selected by EnBW for this contract based on our experience and proven track record. Likewise, we are extremely proud to be part of building up one of the first German Offshore wind projects without subsidies. He Dreiht is among the biggest planned offshore wind power projects in Europe and is scheduled to go into operation in 2025. It's a great day for us at Smulders. The order is one of the largest in our history and will occupy a significant part of our capacity in the coming years. Production starts in March 2023 at our yard in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. The last load out is scheduled for April 2024. The transition pieces are up to 30 meters high and close to 8.5 meters in diameter. Each element weighs more than 700 tons, including secondary steel. We are the world leader in manufacturing of transition pieces and have so far delivered to a third of the world's offshore wind turbines foundations. This project consolidates our position.”

"We are pleased to have with the joint venture of Sif/Smulders two experienced partners for the production of transition pieces on board for our first subsidy-free offshore wind farm in the North Sea," says Jörn Däinghaus, Project Director for EnBW He Dreiht. "The expansion of renewable energies is an important focus of EnBW's strategy. It contributes to having at least half of our generation portfolio made up of renewable energies by the end of 2025 and paves the way for the company's climate neutrality in 2035."

Following the award in November 2020 of contracts for Dogger Bank A and B, Dogger Bank Wind Farm has now signed with the Sif-Smulders consortium the contract for the fabrication and supply of all foundations for the Dogger Bank C phase of the project. The foundation fabrication and supply are subject to financial close on Dogger Bank C which is foreseen late 2021.

Dogger Bank Wind Farm is being developed in three phases – Dogger Bank A, Dogger Bank B and Dogger Bank C – located more than 130km from the Yorkshire coast. Collectively they will become the world’s largest offshore wind farm when complete.

Dogger Bank A and B is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (40%), Equinor (40%) and Eni (20%). In November 2021 SSE Renewables and Equinor, 50:50 joint venture partners in Dogger Bank C, announced Eni will take a 20% stake in the final phase, with SSE Renewables and Equinor maintaining 40% stakes each, in a deal that is expected to complete in Q1 2022 (subject to Dogger Bank C Financial Close and regulatory approvals).

Dogger Bank C, like A and B, will have an installed generation capacity of 1.2GW. Combined, they will have an installed capacity of 3.6GW and will be capable of powering 6 million UK homes. Dogger Bank C is expected to require 87 foundations. Water depths at Dogger Bank vary up to 31 metres. Each foundation comprises a monopile and a transition piece.

In the project-specific Sif-Smulders consortium, Sif is responsible for fabrication and supply of monopiles and primary steel for the transition pieces, and for the marshalling of all foundation components at its Maasvlakte 2 Rotterdam terminal (picture below). Smulders will manufacture secondary steel and assemble, coat and test fully equipped transition pieces.

Dogger Bank Wind Farm Project Director, Steve Wilson, said:

“We’re delighted to expand our ongoing work with Sif and Smulders on the first two phases of the windfarm with this contract for DBC. The consortium will supply monopiles and transition pieces that are among the largest to be installed on any offshore wind farm and which continue to push the boundaries of foundation design.”

Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif Holding said:

“We are honoured by the confidence in our company that the developers of Dogger Bank Wind Farm express in their award of part C of the Dogger Bank Wind Farm to Sif. Together with the phases A and B of Dogger Bank, Dogger Bank C extends our order book to well into 2024, allowing us time to prepare for expected demand for larger foundations for the period 2025 and beyond. With more than 400 Kton for the years 2022 and beyond, our order book covers a more than 2 years production period. The Dogger Bank C was already included in our order book as a project under exclusive negotiations. We are a proud partner to Equinor/SSE/ENI for the landmark Dogger Bank Wind Farm project”.

Raf Iemants, Managing Director of Smulders said:

“Smulders looks forward to continuing our partnership with SSE/Equinor for Dogger Bank C together with Sif. We are proud that we can share our knowledge and expertise and deliver the transition pieces for all three phases of the world’s largest offshore wind farm.”

Roermond, The Netherlands – 21 December 2020. Sif Holding n.v. will manufacture 70 TP-less design monopiles (65 kton steel) for Van Oord. Van Oord is contracted by operator CrossWind for the construction of the 759 MW project Hollandse Kust Noord in The Netherlands. CrossWind is a joint venture between Shell and Eneco. Sif’s scope comprises manufacturing of the monopiles and storage at the MV2 facility in Rotterdam in 2022- 2023.

For further info see attached PDF

For full release reference is made to attached PDF

The Akita-Noshiro wind farm is situated in the Akita and Noshiro districts in the coastal zone of Akita Prefecture. The project will be realized by Kajima Corporation as EPCI contractor.

Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif Holding: “At Sif we are proud and thankful that Kajima corporation has put their trust in Sif for the supply of the monopiles of this first significant OSW farm. At Sif we consider this an important milestone and a confirmation that 5 years of investment in building up strong business relations in the developing Japanese OSW market has paid off. The Japanese OSW market has a lot of mid to long term potential and Sif is committed to contribute to the successful development of this growing market”

This project was already in Sif’s orderbook as a project under exclusive negotiations but is now included as a firm contract. Sif’s orderbook for 2020 now has approximately 175 Kton in firm projects.

Roermond, 27th December 2019. Sif Holding n.v. has entered into exclusive negotiations for the delivery of 33 monopiles and 33 Transition pieces (25 KTon steel) for an offshore wind project in Japan. The current state of negotiations has led to a pre- order of the steel for the project. Manufacture of the MP/TP-foundations and disclosure of project details is subject to the issue of a Notice To Proceed (NTP) by the client. Sif’s orderbook for 2020 now has approximately 175 Kton of which 25 Kton under exclusive negotiations and 150 Kton in firm projects

This office, located in Tokyo is the first point of contact for Japanese applications.

Contact details:
Tokyo Bayside Bldg.
2F3-33-17 Kaigan, Minato-ku
Tokyo 108-0022
Japan

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”.

The installation of the monopiles is subject to a schedule that includes seasonal restrictions on pile driving activity as a protective measure for the highly endangered North Atlantic Right Whales. Sif’s ability and confidence to meet this schedule was an important consideration in being selected by Vineyard Wind. Sif scheduled the production of these monopiles for the first half of 2020.

The requirement of an additional Environmental Impact Study (EIS) by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is now delaying the project beyond the timeframe initially assumed by Vineyard Wind. This unexpected requirement again is a good example of the volatility of the offshore wind market. Sif and Vineyard Wind are investigating the impact and possible mitigation of the delays caused hereby. It however has become inevitable that delays will be suffered which will impact Sif’s production planning for 2020. If and how this will have an impact is not yet clear as this depends on how Vineyard Wind decides to proceed. At this time, it is Vineyard Wind’s priority to get clarity on the impact for the total Vineyard Wind project. Vineyard Wind has indicated that they need some time to assess, which could take approximately four to six weeks.

Sif has allowed for a delay of a few months in their planning and included decision moments on the planning in their contract with Vineyard Wind. Sif is studying the consequences of mitigation options beyond the contractually agreed delay decision moments. Once clarity on their expected new schedule is received from Vineyard Wind within the next four to six weeks, the impact on Sif’s production planning and schedule can be assessed in more detail. Only at that time it will be clear if there is a financial impact beyond the provisions in the contract and what mitigating actions Sif is able to take.

One of the monopiles will have a slip joint connection. The slip joint connection is the connection between the monopile foundation and the transition piece that connects the foundation and the tower. This has traditionally been a flanged or a grouted connection.

In contrast, one foundation will be equipped with conical-shaped end pieces of the monopile and transition piece, which are stacked like coffee cups in a cupboard. This connection will save installation time offshore. While this technique has been applied successfully onshore, it was only used in offshore projects on a test basis.

The coating for the other monopile will be aluminium sprayed for a major part of the surface with a view to avoiding corrosion combined with minimizing the required maintenance activities.

"Sif considers it important to be part of innovations such as the ones being applied by our client Two Towers at Borssele V. These innovations are aimed at either saving costs on the manufacturing of the products and/or the installation and its maintenance at sea or at ensuring an improvement of the environmental impact on sea life. The offshore wind industry is still young and innovations such as these help to further decrease the levelized costs of energy from offshore wind."

Two Towers is the consortium for the Borssele V project that comprises Van Oord, Investri Offshore and Green Giraffe. Grid connection is scheduled for 2021.

The contract has been awarded by EPCI-contractor Dredging International, a DEME Group's subsidiary. The transition pieces will be manufactured in joint venture with Smulders in Hoboken.

SeaMade offshore wind farm is located approximately 40 to 50 km off the coast of Ostend (Belgium) in 22- 38 m water depth. SeaMade will be developed by SeaMade N.V., a joint venture of the Otary group (70%), Electrabel (Engie) (17.5%) and Eneco Wind Belgium (12.5%). The 487 Megawatt offshore wind farm will comprise of 58 Siemens- Gamesa turbines each with an individual installed capacity of 8.4 MW and will be placed on monopile foundations. The monopiles and primary steel for transition pieces will be produced by Sif. Smulders will manufacture secondary steel and be responsible for the outfitting of the transition pieces.

The total volume of the project will amount to approximately 60 ktons for the MP's and 13.7 ktons for the primary steel for TP's. The production is scheduled for 2019. The project is already in the orderbook of Sif as presented when releasing interim 2018 results in August last. At that time still as a project where Sif and Dredging International were in exclusive negotiations. Following financial close on 3 December last, the contract is now firm.

Richard Jongen, Commercial Manager Wind Sif: "This is the first time Sif is going to manufacture the offshore foundations for a wind project on behalf of Ørsted. With our new assembly facility and state-of-the-art deep-sea quay on Maasvlakte II (Port of Rotterdam), Sif is ideally located and perfectly equipped to efficiently produce and deliver the monopile foundations. Sif is very pleased to contribute to a successful offshore wind project off the Dutch coast such as Borssele I-II."

The Borssele I-II wind farm is located approximately 22 kilometers out to sea from the coast of Zeeland in The Netherlands. The project will cover an area of 138 square kilometers with water depths of up to 38 meters and will comprise of 8 MW Siemens Gamesa 8.0-167 DD wind turbines. The turbines will be installed on 94 monopile foundations with transition pieces. The total installed capacity of the Borssele I-II wind farm will be 752 MW.

The production of monopiles is scheduled for 2019. The project is already in the orderbook of Sif as presented when releasing interim 2018 results in August last.

The Borssele III & IV wind farm is located approximately 22 kilometers out to sea from the coast of Zeeland in The Netherlands. The project will cover an area of 122 square kilometers with water depths of up to 38 meters and will comprise of Vestas V164-9.5 MW wind turbines. The turbines will be built on monopile foundations without transition pieces. The total installed capacity of the Borssele III & IV wind farm will be 731.5 MW.

The production of monopiles is scheduled from early July until December 2018. The project was already presented in the orderbook of Sif as "exclusive negotiations" and will now be presented as a firm contract. This brings the total orderbook for 2018 at 183 Kton.

The facility is currently equipped with two fully operational production lines, which have the capacity to produce four complete monopiles per week.

In his officiating speech at the opening ceremony, Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Henk Kamp expressed his admiration for the groundbreaking efforts by Sif to develop offshore wind energy as an energy source: "As a family-owned business with solid roots in Limburg province, Sif has undergone remarkable growth and development and helped to ensure that the need for subsidies for building offshore wind turbines will be eliminated within the next few years. This means we are on track to become a low-carbon society."

In his speech, Port of Rotterdam CEO Allard Castelein stated his hope that the Minister would be able to translate the objectives of the sustainability sector into a long-term vision for further advancing the development of wind as a source of energy: "Wind energy is a perfect example of a win-win situation. In addition to resulting in cleaner energy consumption, creating jobs, and generating revenue in a whole new segment of industry, it also attracts many related businesses looking to settle in this area."

Sif Holding N.V. CEO Jan Bruggenthijs expressed his pride at the successful completion of the project and explained the significance of the new facility in his speech: "This is a perfect representation of the goals that Sif is committed to. We continue to focus on reducing the costs of the construction of offshore wind farms. We do this not only by applying the cost leadership concept to the use of ultra-modern production resources but also by constantly reducing costs in the total value chain. Together with our clients and offshore wind-farm developers, Sif will continue searching for further cost optimization and supporting the possibility to create wind farms without subsidies."

The project took a total of approximately 30 months to complete, from the signing of the partnership agreement between Sif and Port of Rotterdam in March 2015 and the launch of production in September 2016 up to and including the commissioning of the second production line and the facility's official opening this year. The operation coincided with the upgrade of the production facilities at Sif's Roermond site. This marks the completion of an investment program involving an amount of roughly € 90 million, created by Sif to enable offshore wind-farm managers to start using a new generation of wind turbines with larger capacities.

Triton Knoll is an offshore wind farm developed by a joint venture of Innogy Renewables UK Ltd and Statkraft AS, located 32 km off the coast of Lincolnshire and 50 km off the coast of north Norfolk. The project will have an installed capacity of 860 MW and will use MHI Vestas' V164-9.5 MW turbines with a maximum tip height of up to 187 m. The project plans to install 90 wind turbines, 2 offshore substations, 1 onshore substation, associated inter-array cables and export cables that are routed both offshore and onshore.

For the design portion of the work Sif and Smulders have selected one of the leading engineering companies in this field, UK based Atkins Ltd. Atkins has established a successful track-record over the years in the engineering and design of similar offshore foundations

The engineering and design for the project will start before the end of the month of September 2017 based on an Early Works Agreement. Fabrication will start in the first quarter of 2019 following the Financial Closure of the project, which is expected to be halfway 2018.

The Taiwanese offshore wind market is developing rapidly and the Taiwanese government's renewable energy policy aims to achieve a status of "non-nuclear homeland" by the end of 2025. The goal is to install 3 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2025. Century Wind Power Co. and Sif want to contribute jointly to this ambitious target.

For that purpose, the parties have signed a letter of intent, confirming their objectives and investigating the possibilities of a joint venture to offer and produce monopiles and transition pieces for the Taiwanese market. Until the Taiwanese market demonstrates a structural demand for offshore wind monopile foundations, sections will be manufactured at Sif's locations in The Netherlands to be assembled and coated by Century in Taiwan