Visser & Smit Marine Contracting

Visser & Smit Marine Contracting (VSMC) operates as a specialist contractor for the installation, maintenance and replacement of subsea power and other multi‑purpose cables. Established in 2007 by Visser & Smit Hanab, part of the VolkerWessels group, it was created to provide subsea cable installation services to the offshore wind industry and sits within VolkerWessels’ wider energy infrastructure activities. Initially set up in the Netherlands, VSMC expanded to operate through three European entities – VSMC B.V. in the Netherlands, VSMC Ltd in the UK and VSMC GmbH in Germany – and by 2012 became an independent company within the group. In 2013 VolkerWessels and Royal Boskalis Westminster formed a 50/50 offshore cable installation joint venture around VSMC, and in 2014 the business was rebranded as VBMS (VolkerWessels Boskalis Marine Solutions). VSMC’s core business is ensuring that electricity generated by offshore wind turbines is transported from individual turbines to offshore transformer stations and onwards to the onshore grid. It installs, maintains and repairs array cables between turbines and export cables from offshore substations to landfall, and provides turnkey packages covering design, engineering, manufacturing coordination, testing, transport, storage, route clearance, survey, installation, burial, termination, jointing, inspection, repair and maintenance. Its scope extends to interconnectors, crossings, landfalls and outfalls, and it has developed capabilities in umbilical and flexible flowline installation and Balance of Plant maintenance for the renewables market. The company has built a substantial track record on large European offshore wind projects including London Array, Walney, Ormonde, Anholt, Meerwind Süd/Ost, Nordsee Ost, Dantysk, Sandbank, Westermeerwind, Luchterduinen, Dudgeon, Sheringham Shoal and Horns Rev 2, working for utilities such as RWE, E.ON and DONG and alongside partners including Boskalis, Visser & Smit Hanab, Volker Stevin Offshore, VolkerWessels UK and staffing provider TOS. By 2013 it employed over 200 personnel and operated with dedicated in‑house installation crews, supported by joint‑venture access to DP2 cable‑laying vessels Stemat Spirit and Ndurance and trenching technology such as the Trenchformer.