ECTMarine delivers custom-built workboat to Arab Potash Company in Jordan

Dutch naval engineering firm ECTMarine has delivered a new custom-built workboat to Jordanian company Arab Potash Company (APC), following the successful completion of site acceptance tests (SAT) at the Dead Sea's brine evaporation ponds.

The vessel, identified as Custom Workboat 104, was designed and built in the Netherlands and adapted to the particular conditions of the Dead Sea, where the extremely dense and saline brine and the site's location, some 400 meters below sea level, posed specific operational challenges.

The vessel features a forward-positioned wheelhouse, an open working deck, and a knuckle boom crane. ECTMarine developed the design based on APC's operational requirements, with a hull and deck layout conceived to allow for road transport on a standard flat rack platform.

Before being shipped, the vessel passed factory acceptance tests (FAT) in the Netherlands during the summer of 2026, where a delegation from the buyer witnessed in-water trials and system demonstrations. It was then shipped to Jordan on a platform and transported by road along the evaporation pond dikes to the launch point, where a mobile crane equipped with a dual-spreader bar system lifted it from the trailer and lowered it into the brine, where the SAT trials were carried out.

Abdallah Ghammaz, project manager at Alghanem, the main contracting company represented on site, noted that the Dead Sea is not a typical environment for operating vessels, given the density and corrosiveness of the brine, the remoteness of the site, and the need to transport and crane-lift the vessel. He stated that, having passed the SAT trials, the workboat is now ready to begin daily service for APC.