Page 30: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2022)

INTERVIEW MIKKEL GLEERUP, CEO, CADELER

Fresh from its name change and

IPO, Cadeler CEO Mikkel Gleerup shares insights on the path ahead for his company in the fast- growing offshore wind sector, with details on Cadeler’s new X-Class

Wind Turbine Installation Vessels.

By Greg Trauthwein their interest and to get technical input; to ensure that what we

The last two years were big year for your were building what was needed. (Through these discussions company, with a name change from Swire plus information released during the IPO) they knew that we

Blue Ocean and IPO at the end of 2020 had been working towards this goal for a long time; they saw and a rebranding through 2021. What was the path and they liked what they saw.

the rationale for these moves?

The X-Class series has signi? cant bene? ts because of the

We rebranded from Swire Blue Ocean to Cadeler end of enhanced loading, carriage and installation capability, which 2020 to demonstrate that this was a separation from Swire. allows you to severely reduce the number of transits.

Swire is still an integral part of us, but it was to create a [Note: In the transport of 15MW turbines, Cadeler’s exist- standalone company with own structure, culture and goals. In ing O-Class vessels could transit with three turbines, where- terms of the going to the public market (IPO), offshore wind is as the new X-Class vessels will be able to transit with seven growing very fast and it’s also capital-intensive. We believed (7) turbines.] that going public was the best path.

In parallel with signing the contract, Ca-

In March 2021 you announced your big- gest ever contract with Siemens Gamesa. deler ordered two giant X-Class offshore

WTIVs from COSCO. Can you tell us a little

Interestingly, the contract was for a ves- bit more about the design of the ships?

sel that hadn’t been ordered, to install tur-

They are special because they are purpose-built. We de- bines that have yet to be made. Can you signed them towards the turbine installation market and I add some color on how the talks before think that we had seen both the bene? ts and the downsides of the contract signing went?

having too much multi-functionality in a ship design.

We were on that path to ordering new vessels, and we had

In looking at our O-Class, you could say that they were de- interacted with Siemens and other clients early on to gauge 30 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • February 2022

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