Royal IHC


Royal IHC or Koninklijke IHC, previously IHC Holland, IHC Holland Merwede and IHC Merwede is a Dutch shipbuilding company with headquarters in Kinderdijk. It focuses on the development, design and construction of ships for the dredging and offshore industries.

IHC Holland partnership (1943–1965)

The Industriële Handels Combinatie in the Hague was a partnership. The idea came up when the Billiton company made plans for tin mining after the war, and a number of shipyards each deemed themselves incapable to build the required vessels on their own after the war. The partnership consisted of 6 small companies which were all strong players in dredging, but wanted to be more efficient. In sales e.g. it was very inefficient for all these relatively small companies to have their own agents abroad. The partnership consisted of:
Already in July 1945, an order for 6 tin bucket dredgers came in from the Billiton Company. The order would be built by a consortium of Gusto, Conrad, Stork Hijs and Verschure & Co. under leadership of J. & K. Smit. In December 1946 IHC contracted with Turkey for 6 twin screw passenger ships. In September 1947 IHC got a French order for five big dredgers.
In the 1950s IHC contracted for many dredging vessels. In 1952 it also contracted for 5 reefer ships. In this order, Verschure & Co. and De Klop each built two ships, and J. & K. Smit only one. The engines would be built by Werkspoor and De Schelde. In 1956 IHC got an order for a cutting suction dredger to dig for bauxite in Suriname. The floating sheerleg Simson is now in the Maritime Museum Rotterdam it was built by a combination of shipyards. De Hoop in Hardinxveld would build the pontoon. Kloos en Zn. N.V. built the superstructure, and J. & K. Smit made the steam engines, tools and other machinery.
In 1960 IHC delivered a special dredger. It was a rock breaker / spoon dredger built for the Suez Canal by J. & K. Smit. It could fix itself by using studs. It would then use a 22,500 kg digging bar to break rock formations. The 4.5 m3 spoon would then pick up the fragments.

Public company IHC Holland (1965–1978)

Foundation

In 1965 the boards of 5 of the 6 companies which cooperated in IHC Holland decided to merge their companies. Conrad Shipyard en Stork Hijsch N.V. could not join, because it was part of the Stork conglomerate.

Merger of J. & K. Smit and L. Smit

In 1966 IHC Holland started to merge J. &. K. Smit and L. Smit shipyards into a partnership known as Smit Kinderdijk v.o.f. In 1971 Smit Kinderdijk became IHC Smit N.V.

SBM Offshore and the Single Buoy Mooring

The single buoy mooring was an idea by Shell. It would lead to the establishment of a daughter company called Single Buoy Mooring, the nucleus of the later SBM Offshore. Gusto shipyard started production of SBMs in the late 1950s with technical assistance by Shell. SBMs became a very successful product of Gusto in the 1960s. However, during installation the builder Gusto often had to call on operator Shell for assistance. In order to solve this Robert Smulders founded a new IHC daughter company on 27 February 1969. SBM Inc., in Fribourg, Switzerland, would specialize in SBMs. It would do marketing and sales, delivery, training of operator staff, after sales, and ideas for new products.

Offshore specialists Gusto Schiedam and Gusto Staalbouw (Slikkerveer)

From the mid-1960s Gusto Schiedam would focus on offshore products like Drillships and Oil Platforms. It also built Pipe-laying ships like the massive Castoro 7. A project that was a bit too big for a medium-sized shipbuilder.
The construction shop / shipyard Gusto Staalbouw was founded on 1 October 1973 as a separate company called IHC Gusto Staalbouw BV. The reasons to do this were thought to be in the wage differences between steelworkers and shipbuilders. Gusto Staalbouw first moved to Sliedrecht, and then to Slikkerveer in 1975, where it replaced the local Gusto shipyard. Gusto Staalbouw built a number of offshore products like jackup rigs, but also the single buoy mooring, which was fundamental for the growth of SBM.

IHC is reorganized

By 1975 the Dutch shipbuilding industry was in deep trouble. IHC had three main activities: Construction of dredging vessels, Construction of Offshore material, and Offshore activities and services. The huge conglomerate Rijn-Schelde-Verolme built warships and supertankers, but it was clear that the market for supertankers would not recover in the foreseeable future. The Dutch government was prepared to help, but only if the shipbuilders would start to cooperate with each other, and capacity was reduced. In January 1977 a commission finally advised the government on how to reorganize shipbuilding. In August 1977 the shipbuilders RSV and IHC, and the labor unions, agreed to shut down IHC Holland's Gusto Shipyard of 1,200 men, as well as construction at P. Smit and RDM. In parallel with these closures, a 350 million guilder modernization plan was designed. E.g. much work on the shipyards was still done in the open air, and would be brought indoors.

The end of Gusto Schiedam

By early 1977 the IHC Gusto shipyard in Schiedam was losing a lot of money. In January IHC Holland had accepted orders for dredging material amounting to 210 million guilders. These orders were known to lead to a significant loss, but the alternative was worse. In order to get government permission for collective layoffs, and subsidies for modernization, IHC was therefore prepared to get rid of its shipyard Gusto Schiedam. This shipyard built offshore products for which there was little demand. It also had not yet been modernized, which had taken place at other IHC shipyards. The total cost of closing Gusto shipyard in Schiedam came to 80 million guilders for IHC, while the state paid another 233 million.
To this day there are suspicions about parties scheming to close down the renowned Gusto Shipyard. The closure was probably a combination of the IHC board being prepared to give up an old shipyard that it no longer needed, and RSV having ambitions in the offshore industry. Indeed, while the shipyard was closed down, all its employees got a new contract after the employees of the famous Gusto engineering office agreed to work at RSV in the future. It was an unusual way to reorganize. Furthermore, IHC got 200 million to reorganize its dredging activities, a subsidy that was made conditional on closing Gusto Schiedam. This way IHC Holland ended the construction of large offshore projects.

IHC Holland is split

What was left of IHC Holland after the closure of Gusto Schiedam was the dredging division, and the offshore activities and services. In Gusto Staalbouw Slikkerveer IHC had also retained part of its offshore construction, notably that of single buoy moorings. The idea to keep Gusto Engineering had failed. The publicly traded company IHC Holland would next be split in three parts:
  • Public company IHC Holdings NV, later named Caland Holdings N.V.
  • Public company IHC Inter N.V.
  • Private company IHC Holland
IHC Holdings NV became the new name of the old public company IHC Holland in October 1978. IHC Holdings then became a 45% shareholder in a new private shipbuilding company called IHC Holland. IHC Holdings NV, the shares of which were traded on the Amsterdam Exchange, was so often confused with IHC Holland, that the name IHC Holdings NV was changed to Caland Holdings NV in October 1979. It would be wrong to think of Caland Holdings primarily as 'parent company' of IHC Holland. In the annual report over 1980 Caland gave its shares in IHC Holland a nil value, but still made a profit of 17.6 million from other sources.
IHC Inter N.V. was a holding split off from IHC Holdings. It became a 60% owner of IHC Inc., the parent of the companies which formed the nucleus of SBM Offshore. Caland Holdings owned the other 40%. IHC Inc. paid a heavy price at the split, but this way its shareholders did not have to fear that IHC Inc. would be bled dry to save the shipyards. IHC Inter and Caland Holdings would merge again in 1984.

Private company IHC Holland (1978–2021)

Foundation

The foundation of the new private shipbuilding company IHC Holland was part of the large late 1970s reorganization of the Dutch shipbuilding industry. This reorganization was meant to modernize shipbuilding, to increase economies of scale, and to increase cooperation in the sector. IHC's shipbuilding activities would be merged with those of dredging vessel builder Van Rees, and the state would invest via NIBC Bank. The later Caland Holdings would get 46%, NIBC 46% and the Van Rees shareholders 8.5%. The new shipbuilding company would take the name IHC Holland from the old publicly traded company.

Closure of IHC Verschure

In April 1979, only half a year after its foundation, IHC announced that it would have to shrink further. The immediate cause was a missed order for two dredging vessels for Egypt. A generally accepted calculation of the demand for dredging vessels stated that the demand would not exceed 6 vessels a year. The most modern shipyard of IHC, IHC Smit in Kinderdijk, could build 5 a year. At the time IHC had only orders for half a year's work.
In May 1979 it became official that Verschure shipyard in Amsterdam would have to be closed. A general reorganization plan for the sector called for shipbuilding at Verschure to cease, and for reducing capacity at Gusto Staalbouw in Slikkerveer and Geleen. The explanation by IHC for the choice to close Verschure was as follows: It was a shipyard with relatively bad facilities, which led to a high cost price. Modernization would cost 75 million, and even then, the result would be doubtful. By September 1979, the closure of Verschure, which lost 150,000 guilders a day became final. Without closing Verschure, IHC would face a yearly loss of 60 million. By closing down shipbuilding at Verschure, and reducing capacity at Gusto Staalbouw the loss would be limited to 14 million a year.