Jan De Nul

Founded in 1938 in Hofstade, near Aalst, Belgium, Jan De Nul started as a construction company specialised in civil engineering works. It was only in 1951 that the company entered into the dredging business by acquiring its first cutter suction dredger 'Jan Pieter I'. In the 1990s, it entered the offshore energy market and the environmental remediation industry. Since 2012, the company has forayed into offshore renewable energy business, including European wind energy projects.

At the end of 2025, Jan De Nul had 8,848 employees and a yearly turnover of 4.24 billion euro. Other major dredging companies are Dutch companies Royal Boskalis and Royal Van Oord, and the Belgian DEME.

Early 2025, Jan De Nul rebranded into World Builders.

Jan De Nul was voted the most attractive employer in Belgium in 2008 and 2009.

Jan De Nul has a fleet of 95 vessels, including 29 trailing suction hopper dredgers (with 1 more under construction), 11 cutter suction dredgers, 15 split hopper barges, 6 backhoe dredgers, 5 water injection dredgers, 6 offshore rock installation vessels, 3 trenching support vessels, 2 offshore jack-up installation vessels, 3 cable installation vessels (with 2 more under construction), 3 heavy lift vessels, and 1 oil recovery vessel.

It also has a fleet of heavy equipment, including 77 dump trucks, 191 tracked excavators, 32 tower cranes, 64 bulldozers, 71 wheel loaders, etc.

Records

Largest hopper dredgers: TSHD 'Cristóbal Colón' and 'Leiv Eiriksson', capacity of 46,000 m3, maximum dredging depth of 155 m