Industeel has traditionally been a leading company in the market of heavy plates for oil drilling jack-up rig legs. Although the jack-up rig market has slowed down sharply over the past few years, this technology is now seeing a revival due to the Global Energy Transition, as we are seeing an emerging market using the same jack-up concept for wind turbine installation vessels (WTIV) for offshore wind farms.
There are more and more wind farms in the North Sea where shallow sea conditions and high wind speeds provide perfect conditions for wind energy.
These wind farms are based on new generation of giant wind turbines measuring up to 260m in height with an output in the range of 10 to 20MW per turbine. To install them at sea requires a new fleet of high-end WTIV jack-ups with a height between the base of the rack and the top of the crane of 325m, higher than the Eiffel Tower.
Industeel supplies both the extra-heavy plates for the legs of these platforms, as well as parts for the critical components of the cranes.
The legs of these platforms are made of high strength steel (Superelso 690 CR®) following ABS and DNV offshore standards, for which Industeel is qualified for plates of up to 254mm thick and up to 60 Tons per unit weight.
Industeel is the only steel company producing this steel via the electric arc furnace route, allowing a reduction in CO2 footprint of around 2 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel compared to steels produced via the blast furnace route.
