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With an expansion strategy designed to conquer the Middle East, global engineering powerhouse Wärtsilä Corporation remains confident in its ambitious claim that ‘every third ship you see is powered by us’.

Carving out a niche in the Middle East's competitive marine industry is by no means an easy task. As a part of Wärtsilä Corporation of Finland, a well-reputed global leader in solutions for ship machinery, propulsion, automation, manoeuvring, ship design and services, Wärtsilä Dubai has achieved just that.

The focus of Wärtsilä's services is to support the operation, maintenance, performance and economy of engines, propulsion systems and power plant systems both on land and at sea.

As such, its list of customers include owners, operators and yards in the merchant, cruise and ferry, offshore, naval and special vessels markets. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the Middle East regional office has found its order books full with both the thriving shipping industry and oil sector at its doorstep.

In its own words, Wärtsilä is a huge global engineering group, focusing on power generation and marine propulsion - mainly through its impressive range of Wärtsilä engines. The engines themselves, and the technology driving them, are manufactured in Europe, chiefly in Finland and Italy, as well as in China. To deliver these to its international customer base, Wärtsilä has offices dotted all around the globe, including several located in the Gulf region.

"Wärtsilä has been operating in the region since 1992 in Abu Dhabi, and has rapidly expanded as a reflection of the growing market for its services," elaborates Ad Bertens, managing director of Wärtsilä Dubai.

To meet this growing demand from its marine and power plant customers, the company moved to Jebel Ali Free Zone in 1997 and continued to open more offices across Dubai, including a main base in the popular shipyard of Al Jaddaf. With Al Jaddaf now being relocated to Dubai Maritime City (DMC), Wärtsilä will be moving again to set up an office and workshop within the region's most prestigious and ambitious maritime development in the near future.

"We are ready to set up in DMC, but as there has been some delay in delivering the project there, we have to wait for the go-ahead," Bertens adds.

Although DMC promises to provide the perfect backdrop for the company's growing business, Wärtsilä will continue to have another major presence in Dubai through its new state-of-the-art workshop, opened earlier this year in Dubai Investment Park, close to Jebel Ali. For the company, having this presence on both sides of Dubai is very important.

"The office and workshop in DMC will be our first line base for our marine customers but the large projects and volume will be done in Dubai Investment Park," Bertens explains.

As he points out, the workshop has been a necessary and long-planned expansion to Wärtsilä's business in the region. "Customers expect to have an ultra-modern workshop from an original equipment manufacturer such as Wärtsilä," he says.

Combined, the workshop and offices have a floor area of around 10,000m².

"This is more than three times the combined size of our other Dubai locations," Bertens says. "The workshop is equipped with overhead cranes meaning that we have a maximum capacity of 30,000 metric tonnes. We also have more than enough height, enabling us to overhaul complete engines."

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