BLRT's Tallinn Shipyard Commissions New Floating Dry Dock
On August 8, BLRT Repair Yards' Tallinn Shipyard in Estonia on Thursday commissioned a new floating dry dock, enabling it to maintain, repair and modernize larger vessels.
Built to accommodate Handysize vessels, ranging from tankers to passenger ships, the new floating dock measures 180 meters in length, 30 meters in width, and has a lifting capacity of 10,000 tons. It replaces an older floating dock, which measured 155 meters in length and 27 meters in width.
The FD22 was completed at the HAT-SAN Shipyard in Turkey in May 2024. After all the necessary infrastructure preparations were completed, the FD 22 was transported to Tallinn by the tug Zeus of Finland, operated by Alfons Håkans.
Strategically located along key Baltic shipping routes, Estonia's ship repair industry is a growing sector with well-established facilities, particularly in Tallinn and Saaremaa. The industry benefits from skilled labor, competitive pricing and increasing investments in infrastructure, positioning Estonia as an emerging hub in the Baltic maritime sector.
“We tend to think of the maritime industry mainly in terms of ships and ports, but, in fact, [the ship repair] sector has tremendous potential,” said Kristen Michal, Prime Minister of Estonia, after visiting the dock. “The commissioning of the new large floating dock at BLRT Grupp's ship repair yard marks a significant milestone for Estonia's industrial progress. This investment will substantially expand the yard's capabilities to service, repair, and upgrade large-capacity vessels.
“Simultaneously, it will support Estonia's strategy for developing a hub of environmentally safe and innovative maritime technologies and services. If we approach this wisely, we can transform Estonia into a nation as advanced in maritime technologies as we are today in digital technologies. Such investments make an essential contribution to the implementation of this ambitious plan.”
BLRT Repair Yards—part of the BLRT Grupp, one of the largest industrial groups in the Baltic Sea region—runs three ship repair yards: Tallinn Shipyard in Estonia, Western Shiprepair in Lithuania and Turku Repair Yard in Finland.
In 2020, Western Shiprepair commissioned a 235-meter-long and 45-meter-wide floating dock—the largest in the Baltic States—designed to service Post-Panamax, Panamax and Aframax size vessels.
In Finland, the Turku Repair Yard recently reconstructed the graving dock bottom of one of the largest docks in Northern Europe, measuring 265 meters by 70 meters, as part of the group's ongoing investment program aimed at modernizing its repair yard infrastructure.