Shipyards BLRT Grupp and Wärtsilä co-operate to install scrubbers

Source Hellenic Shipping News vom 22.11.2011

Ship-repair yards of BLRT Grupp and the marine industry's solutions provider Wärtsilä has signed a Co-operation Agreement aimed at promoting the exhaust gas purification systems (scrubbers). All ship-repair yards of BLRT Grupp will cooperate - Tallinn Shipyard in Tallinn, Western Shiprepair in Klaipeda and Turku Repair Yard in Turku. This agreement is the new phase of cooperation between our concerns that will allow not only to conduct general repairs in our yards but also to modernize ships in accordance with the new requirements of international conventions, explained Marketing Director of Tallinn Shipyard Gabriel Avanesov. Combination of new technology developed at Wärtsilä and services provided by our specialists will allow us to offer our clients new product at reasonable prices which is especially important now when shipping companies have problems because of low freight rates, he added. The success of this cooperation was confirmed by the pilot project which was carried out by our specialists at Turku Repair Yard in anticipation of a formal agreement, said Managing Director of Turku Repair Yard Hans Sundqvist. According to him, the specialists of BLRT Grupp have everything that is required to carry out modernization works and to develop relevant projects and draw up the documentation. The agreement was concluded for a period of three years and it involves installation of scrubbers on the ships that regularly operate in SECA zones. According to the analytics, scrubber market capacity may increase up to 70 billion dollars by the year 2025. The international convention MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships), namely its Annex VI Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships, sets limits on sulphur content in the fuel that is used in ship propulsion systems. By 2015, the limit for sulphur content in the fuel for SECA zones (Sox Emission Control Areas: the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, La Manche) shall be 0,1 percent. The most costeffective and efficient way to achieve these goals is to purify exhaust gases. The equipment provided by Wärtsilä and installed by BLRT Grupp's yards reduces sulphur oxides by 99 percent. The holding BLRT Grupp consists of 66 subsidiaries and 13 joint ventures that provide employment for 4000 specialists in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Norway, Russia, Poland and Ukraine. In addition to ship repair and modernization services, the holding provides high-quality services of ship design, building and utilization. The holding has also reached considerable results in high-technology metal structures production, machine building, metal processing, stevedore and port services and metal and industrial gases trading.