March 27, 2006
Dredging News Online Interviews Baltimore Dredge Enterprises

American dredge builder Baltimore Dredge Enterprises tells Dredging News Online that the market for its dredging equipment is "robust," both internationally and domestically, and is being driven by healthy activity in many different market segments including sand mining, environmental remediation, marina development and maintenance, lake restoration projects, investment in water infrastructure - whether for wastewater treatment plants or industry related - flood control, and land reclamation.

Baltimore Dredge Enterprises owns several operating companies which build and sell five branded types of hydraulic dredges (Ellicott, Mud Cat™, IMS, LWT, and United Marine International), each with its own technical features and advantages, through four different sales channels each of which relies on separate engineering back up

When useful, the different groups' engineers collaborate or brainstorm for cross fertilization about new ideas, new projects, new solutions. 

"Our dredging machines are rugged, reliable, and built to last. Their sophistication level is geared to the customer and the application," Peter Bowe, President of the company, explained. "It varies widely. If need be we provide fully automated dredges, though that's certainly not the majority of our activity. LWT recently delivered a fully-automated electric dredge to a Bechtel-designed power plant in Egypt for maintenance of a cooling water access channel. The specification compliance paperwork weighed almost as much as the dredge, but it works fine."

Asked about trends in the market for dredges, Mr Bowe said: "Our latest dredge for the State of Delaware incorporates a larger control room for operator comfort as well as a special engine compartment to minimize ambient noises. That particular customer, the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Conservation, also pushed us to obtain an environmentally friendly, yet effective, hydraulic oil which we found in Anderol BioGuard."

Ellicott Series 670 "Dragon Model Dredge for State of Delaware

"Our new swinging ladder dredge for the State of Ohio, just delivered, has many special features not found on any other dredge to date such as both electronic proportional control and display along with conventional direct hydraulic control with analog pressure gauges. This allows automated swing and advance with the addition of density and flow meters. The valve package is located in the engine house, concentrated in one place for ease of maintenance - but the dredge can still be manually operated in case of electrical failure," Mr Bowe explained.

Ellicott 460 Swinging Ladder Dredge

The Ohio machine also features a split control console with centre lower operator window for added visibility of deck winches and ladder and a larger and higher mounted control cab, for better viewing and added space. "The customer loves it," said Mr Bowe.

Operator Cab of the Ellicott 460 Swinging Ladder Dredge

"Incidentally, as part of our sale contract for the new swinging ladder dredge for the State of Ohio we bought back a 40 year old Ellicott dredge from their existing fleet, and promptly sold it to sand plant, where it’s working fine. That’s what we mean by 'rugged, reliable, and built to last,'” he told Dredging News Online.

"Last year we delivered 50 dredges. We plan to do more in 2006, and are now contemplating opening a third manufacturing facility," Mr Bowe explained. "We are also building overseas as the circumstances warrant, and currently we have about 20 machines on order from seven countries."

"One way we distinguish ourselves from other dredge builders is our policy toward the high tech aspects of our business. We would rather ally ourselves with Long Term Technology Partners, which are leaders in their field, than develop our own in-house R&D programmes for everything high-tech," he told Dredging News Online. "In fields like positioning systems and automation controls for large dredges which are part of integrated sand production systems, our partners give us access to scope, scale, and experience which simply can't be replicated in our relatively small dredging industry. The dredging field isn’t big enough, we believe, to underwrite in-house development of global standards for state-of-the-art across the board."

"We are convinced," said Mr Bowe, "the result of our partnering approach is better technology, better reliability, and greater ease of service from the customer's perspective. Thus our sand automation partner, Kruse Controls, brings not just their dredging industry experience to bear, but that of half a dozen other major process industries like food, chemical, and pharmaceutical where they also do business. To maximize efficiency they can achieve total system integration between dredge, booster pump, and classification plant. Their system integrates slurry density/flow data (in TPH) and our Hypack positioning software package, and users can control it either from the Man/Machine Interface in the dredge operator cab, or from a remote location. The system allows remote observation through real time wireless internet access. Because Kruse is a Long Term Technology Partner, our staff work together as closely as if we were actually one organization."

In the near future, Baltimore Dredge will also be announcing an exclusive collaboration with Hypack. to market their dredge positioning systems on all of our products. Recent installations of this system have been made in France, the Middle East, and the Mid-Atlantic. "It's a great technology, and we're pleased to have them as another Long Term Technology Partner," said Bowe.

Hypack Dredge Positioning System used on Ellicott Dredges

Customized designs are not always the most cost-effective or most efficient, Mr. Bowe believes. "Recently our Mud Cat™ Division delivered two MC-2000s to be used as the primary dredging tool for a US Environmental Protection Agency-sponsored cleanup of PCBs. This EPA Superfund project is in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It is a US$200 million project overall, and the proven Mud Cat design has been satisfactory and effective. "

"You asked about the importance of training and financing for exports. We assume that almost every installation, domestic or international, will require training. We have six field service engineers dedicated to that task. This is increasingly the case with software delivered with the dredge like Hypack, or the new lower emission diesel engines," said Mr Bowe.

"Regarding financing, our experience is that every deserving project and creditworthy customer can organize the necessary financing. We maintain dedicated staff whose sole job is to assist customers in this regard, but invariably this is not a problem. And we are creative and flexible: just this week we offered a deserving client a long-term lease in his local currency. Now if you are talking about outright grants, that's another story."

"We are excited about our opportunities looking forward. In 2005 we served over 200 customers in over 25 countries. It should be more in 2006," Mr Bowe concluded.