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Estonian ship repair specialist BLRT Grupp and engine manufacturer Wärtsilä have signed a three-year cooperation agreement aimed at promoting exhaust gas purification systems, or scrubbers.

As part of the agreement, all the ship repair yards of BLRT Grupp - Tallinn Shipyard in Tallinn, Western Shiprepair in Klaipeda and Turku Repair Yard in Turku - will install scrubbers on board ships that regularly operate in SECA zones.

Commenting on the deal, Gabriel Avanesov, marketing director of Tallinn Shipyard, said: "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. The combination of new technology developed at Wärtsilä and services provided by our specialists will allow us to offer our clients new products at reasonable prices, which is especially important now when shipping companies have problems because of low freight rates."

"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 Hans Sundqvist, managing director of Turku Repair Yard.

Wärtsilä, has been involved in the marine scrubber market since 2005, when it initiated a project to identify feasible solutions and to investigate exhaust gas scrubbing as an alternative to the use of low sulphur fuels.

The company received its first commercial order for a scrubber in December 2010. Finnish shipping firm Containerships Ltd Oy agreed a contract for a turnkey installation onboard its vessel, Containerships VII, a ship equipped with a Wärtsilä W7L64 main engine.

Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution by Ships (MARPOL) sets limits on the sulphur content of the fuel that is used in ship propulsion systems. By 2015, the sulphur content limit for fuel in SECA zones (Sox Emission Control Areas) - i.e. the Baltic and North Sea, the English Channel/La Manche - will be 0.1 percent.

"The most cost-effective 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," BLRT Grupp said.

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, BLRT Grupp also carries out ship design, building and utilization services for clients. The group is also involved in the manufacture of high-technology metal structures, machine building, metal processing, stevedore and port services and trading of metals and industrial gases.