Osteriff

June 2022:

Since the insolvency of Pella Sietas, the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration has been working together with the shipyard's insolvency administration on a solution to complete the hold suction hopper dredger and put it into service," Claudia Thoma, spokeswoman for the GDWS, told THB in response to an enquiry. "There is still remaining work to be done," she said. Because of the ongoing negotiations "in this complex procedure", no statements can be made about details such as costs at the moment. The fact is that the new building, which costs around 100 million euros and is 132 metres long, is urgently needed for maintenance work on the Elbe. It can hold and transport 7500 cubic metres.

Long before the insolvency, not everything went according to plan with the "Osteriff". Only after a ten-month delay, caused by the silted-up Este inlet, was the hold suction hopper dredger finally able to leave the shipyard on its building dock on the Elbe tributary in October 2020 and float up in Dradenauhafen. On its own keel, it returned to the shipyard for the final fitting-out. Because large amounts of silt were already deposited there again and a solution to the problem was not in sight, the unit was moved to Blohm+Voss in June 2021. Employees of Pella Sietas wanted to finish the ship there.

But already in July 2021, Germany's oldest shipyard had to file for insolvency. An investor to save the company, which most recently employed 350 people, could not be found.

Osteriff will draw 6.9m and have a dredging depth of maximum 25m. It will be capable of loading 7,500m3 and have eight Bodenventile for offloading, a hold pumping system and a dredging pump capacity of maximum 1,945kW capacity.

The WSV and Pella Sietas have already reported that the newbuild will have what is described as a low-emission and “particularly eco-friendly”, 14,000kW diesel-electric drive for Elbe tidal operations providing up to 13 knots. The WSV told Maritime Journal late 2020 that Osteriff’s propulsion and energy generation configuration will comprise “five identical MAK 8M25E engines each of 2800kW.