Drydocks World joins consortium to accelerate redevelopment of Bijela Shipyard

Drydocks World joins consortium to transform the Bijela Shipyard into a world-class superyacht service, maintenance, refit and repair facility.

The consortium of superyacht marina development and operating group Adriatic Marinas and Dutch shipbuilding group Damen have agreed that Damen’s role in the redevelopment of the former Bijela Shipyard, Boka Bay, Montenegro should now be taken up by a new consortium member, Drydocks World, a Dubai-based leading provider of yacht service, maintenance, refit and repair as well as marine and offshore services to the shipping, oil, gas and energy sectors.

Drydocks World’s involvement in the Bijela Shipyard project brings considerable experience, capabilities and resource to the consortium, and will be key to ensuring that in addition to creating a world-class superyachting hub in Boka Bay, the project will achieve its ambitions of driving major development for Montenegro.

Adriatic Marinas chairman, His Excellency Mohammed I. Al Shaibani, said, “This exciting project will not only regenerate the shipyard at Bijela but the whole marine engineering industry, and bring back to life the long and proud maritime history of Montenegro. We are delighted that our colleagues and partners at Drydocks World will bring their substantial resources and expertise to the project. Together we will reposition Bijela to become one of the Mediterranean’s leading superyacht repair and refit facilities.” He added, “Importantly, I would like to thank our colleagues at Damen for their substantial efforts in helping bring the project to this point of acceleration.”

Following completion of the Government remediation works, the transformation of the yard by the Consortium will be completed over a 36-month period and will see it evolve into a superyacht refit and repair facility with plans to start some service work during this re-development period.

Bijela, Herceg Novi, is the historic homeland of marine engineering in Montenegro and this yard redevelopment will once again bring the country’s renowned sector skills to the Mediterranean marine market.

In addition to the yacht service centre, the consortium plans to establish a skills academy at Bijela to develop future generations of Montenegrin marine engineers. The skills academy will partner with the already established Superyacht Operations Training Academy at Porto Montenegro, which has been created in partnership with British world leader in maritime training, Warsash Maritime Academy.

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO of DP World, said, “Drydocks World has played a key role in Dubai’s growth story, becoming a hub for the maritime industry in the Middle East. By forging a consortium of this nature between Adriatic Marinas and Drydocks World, we are bringing together the considerable combined resources and expertise to develop a world-class facility in Montenegro that will support the economy of the country. This partnership will ensure the Bijela Shipyard can be rapidly regenerated. I am proud that Drydocks World, which has continuously and consistently delivered prestigious global projects, will be front and centre in this strategic development for Montenegro.”

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