WD FAIRWAY knocked out after ships collide

Further to reports that we brought on March 9th ( Container vessel collides with world's largest hopper dredger ) regarding the collision between WD FAIRWAY and the container ship MSC JOANNA during dredging operations in Tianjin, China, Royal Boskalis Westminster announced yesterday that the damage to the W.D.FAIRWAY is 'considerable' and that the ship will be out of action for the remainder of 2007.

The company says that Boskalis is insured for the damage to the ship.
 
The unavailability of the vessel, billed as the world's largest hopper dredger, will lead to a loss of turnover for the rest of 2007 of approximately € 25-30 million (approximately 2% of group turnover), said the company.

The WD FAIRWAY was built in 1997 by Verolme Shipyard Heusden and in 2003 was modified at Sembawang Shipyard, Singapore. She is 232 metres long and has a gross tonnage of 33423 tons