Drydocks World has joined the Maritime Emissions Reduction Centre as its newest international member, strengthening the consortium’s engineering expertise and expanding its global reach.
The Athens based non profit collaboration, known as MERC, focuses on practical decarbonisation solutions for the existing fleet. It was established by the Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub together with leading shipowners including Capital Group, Navios Maritime Partners, Neda Maritime Agency, Star Bulk and Thenamaris, with enabling support from Lloyd’s Register.
The addition of Drydocks World, part of DP World, brings one of the world’s largest ship repair and retrofit facilities into the partnership. The company’s experience in complex engineering and onboard technology integration is expected to play a key role in MERC’s next phase of collaborative work, particularly as shipyards become central to installing energy efficiency and decarbonisation systems.
MERC is currently expanding its research and development programmes, including technical studies into emerging efficiency technologies and pathways for integrating more complex systems on existing vessels. Ongoing work also covers hydrodynamic performance, wind assisted propulsion, alternative auxiliary power and data driven operational optimisation.
Nikos Kakalis, managing director of MERC, said Drydocks World adds an essential layer of applied engineering expertise, helping bridge the gap between technical research and real world implementation in shipyard environments.
Captain Rado Antolovic, chief executive of Drydocks World, said the partnership supports the development of practical and commercially viable decarbonisation strategies. He added that collaboration with MERC partners would help shape retrofit technologies and integration approaches suited to a wide range of vessel types.
