Ploegam from Brabant bought an old shipyard: why Harlingen will have a factory for electric excavators

They started very small, Gijs and Chris Ploegmakers. The brothers still lived at home with mom and dad in Vinkel when they purchased their first crawler crane in 1987. Nowadays, the people of Brabant are considered big boys in the world of civil engineering.

Their family business Ploegam (of Ploegmakers AannemingsMaatschappij) has more than 450 employees, spread over five locations. Ploegam has a reputation to uphold, especially in the field of water safety.

River dikes

They improve, among other things, river dikes near Nijmegen, along the Maas in Limburg and in the Betuwe. One of the northernmost projects is the Stadsdijken near Zwolle, a project that is worth 300 million euros.

Why are they settling in Harlingen now? “The North was always a blank spot for us,” says Gijs Ploegmakers. “And we are active throughout the Netherlands. There are approximately 2,000 kilometers of dikes that need to be strengthened. Together with Dura Vermeer we said: that is priority 1 for us.”

Both companies rely on each other’s specialisms when winning tenders for dike reinforcement projects. The companies have been working together for years to make their work processes more sustainable.

Dura Vermeer

Dura Vermeer is not an unknown name for the Northern Netherlands. At the beginning of last year, this group with more than 3,000 employees took over the bankrupt road builder Jansma Drachten. Since then, they have maintained all ferry ports on the Wadden Sea.

While Dura Vermeer focuses mainly on the reuse of building materials, Ploegam concentrates more on eliminating exhaust fumes on the construction site. “We are a leader in this,” says CEO Ploegmakers.

“That started five years ago, when Rijkswaterstaat and Dura Vermeer asked us if we could have electric machines for the work on the A13 and A16 near Rotterdam.” The family business from Oss got the hang of it.

Emission-free by 2026

“Our entire machine park must be emission-free by 2026,” says Ploegmakers. To make that ambition possible, Ploegam took a 51 percent stake in the Staad Group in 2020. This is the Brabant importer of Develon (formerly Doosan and Daewoo) earth-moving machines from South Korea.

Together, Ploegam and Staad founded the Electric Construction Equipment (ECE) business unit. ECE has now made half of the excavators, tractors, trucks and shovels at Ploegam electric. “I expect that we will have 100 machines by the end of this year,” says Ploegmakers.

Also 50-ton crawler cranes

“Last year we made forty machines electric. This year there will be a hundred and next year we want to reach two hundred. This ranges from mobile cranes to 35-ton crawler cranes, 50-ton crawler cranes…. We also convert tractors and shovels. Just say, the entire range of machines in the heavy segment.”

The electrification of the machine park in Veghel, Stellendam, Grootammers and Franeker is currently taking place. The factory in Harlingen will become operational after the construction holiday. “I think we will have work there for between twenty and thirty people.”

Harlingen Shipyard

For their Frisian branch, the people of Brabant bought the complex of the former Harlingen Shipyard on the Industrieweg, once owned by the Van der Schoot family. This was left empty after the bankruptcy of steel builder SAB. Bouwbedrijf Bruinsma and Mensonides Installaties are currently renovating the two high-rise production halls.

The old, dilapidated office area on the shipyard has already been partly demolished. After the summer, construction of a new office will begin there, intended for tender managers, calculators and controllers from Ploegam, among others. Not only the machine factory is coming to Harlingen, the civil engineering company itself is also following suit.

Sea dike near Koehool

300 million euros have been reserved for improving the Waddendijk between Koehool and the Lauwersmeer. That is a job that Ploegam would like to sink his teeth into. In addition, the company is part of the WaakSaam construction consortium, which maintains roads, bridges, locks and waterways in the north of North Holland.

“We want to tackle the work in the North with people from the region,” explains Gijs Ploegmakers. “I think that soon about a hundred of us will have Harlingen as a base.” When? “Of course, something like this grows gradually.”

Fast charging plaza

Last year, King Willem-Alexander opened the first fast charging plaza in Geldermalsen, a so-called WattHub, for heavy construction equipment and trucks. “We have shown that it is possible to work with green energy,” says Ploegmakers.

“We work a lot for parties such as Rijkswaterstaat, water boards, provincial governments and municipalities. These are works worth 100 to 200 million euros. If you want to get it tendered, you will also have to obtain the permits. We have made quite a statement by saying: we want to carry out the work 100 percent emission-free.”

Batteries of 800 kilowatts

Until now, Ploegam has had existing machines converted. Technicians replace the diesel engines with electric propulsion. “So if you have a crawler crane of, for example, 35 tons, it will contain two batteries with a total of 800 kilowatts. This allows an operator to work ten to fourteen hours.”

Once empty, the batteries are exchanged for two freshly charged ones. That’s done in fifteen minutes, they say at Ploegam, about the same time as filling a diesel tank.

In the coming year, Ploegam and Staad will have semi-finished products imported from South Korea, cranes without an engine and fuel tank. “They are put on a ship and taken to Zeebrugge.” From there it goes by inland vessel to Harlingen. “About fifteen to twenty cranes in parts, which will then be completed.”

Machine trade Anema

Machine trade Anema & Zonen in Arum is on a completely different track. Like their colleagues at Staad in Oss, the Anemas import machines from Develon’s South Korean factories. Siep Anema does not like the fact that the people of Brabant are now also in the North.

“We think we are totally ferskilled.” Anema still does not believe in the electric solution for the fuel transition. For the time being, he is focusing on hydrogen technology. According to the Frisian importer, electric propulsion is only affordable thanks to millions of subsidies.

Green lobby

“This is within the effects of the green lobby,” says Anema. “Such happens all in the Netherlands. Oer de grins kinst neat mei sa ‘nelektroske graafmasine.” That is why Siep and son Almer will continue to focus on the sale of diesel machines for the time being. They are cheaper and have proven their worth.

Moreover, diesel emissions are not too bad these days, claims Siep Anema. “Those filters are good inside. Wy sizze: der komme blomkes út de útlaat. Saskjin. When a diesel engine turns in the blast furnace, the air from the skjinner comes out of the ash that it pours into the yn.”

High fuel price

Gijs Ploegmakers predicts that the price tag for electrical equipment will drop quickly. “That will be cheaper in three to four years than the traditional machines are now. Just look at the fuel price, it already scares you.”

There are too many disadvantages to hydrogen, the Ploegam director fears. “Hydrogen requires seven to eight times as much energy to produce it, and it is also a dangerous substance. Then you have to take so many measures to do that safely.”

He points to the German energy company Uniper, which has postponed its plans for a green hydrogen factory in Rotterdam. That is not without reason, thinks Ploegmakers. But where does the power that Ploegam needs for his projects come from?

There will be more of such a fast charging plaza for heavy equipment like at Geldermalsen soon, says Ploegmakers. Also in the North. “I regularly drove through Friesland,” he says.

Wetterskip Fryslân

“I have spoken to a lot of people, with all kinds of companies, but also with Wetterskip Fryslân, for example. They have many options with solar parks and wind turbines to put that green energy in our batteries. The investments you have to make for this simply yield a return.”

Does he ever sit on an excavator himself? “Yes, certainly,” answers the director. “You never forget that, it’s just like riding a bicycle.” And has he ever operated such an electric crane?

“Yes, it does exactly the same as what a traditional machine does. There is no difference, except the smell. And the sound, maybe. And it doesn’t get your hands dirty either.”