Modern vessel dry dockings extend well beyond traditional repair work. Budgets can quickly reach seven‑figure levels. BSM’s delivery model, with fleet teams in the lead and in-house specialist support brought in when required, provides clients with predictability in terms of costs, downtime and vessel performance.
Published on 27 May 2026
Dry docking requirements vary significantly depending on a vessel’s type, age and general condition. Alongside steel renewal, hull coatings and machinery overhauls, today’s dockings often extend to structural repairs linked to vessel age, ballast water treatment system installations or upgrades, emissions-related modifications, life-extension measures or class-driven enhancements. In addition, shipyards operate under fluctuating labour availability and elevated material costs directly influencing pricing, schedules and delivery certainty.
In this environment, the success of a dry docking is determined long before a vessel enters the yard.
At the core of every successful docking lies a well-structured repair specification. It forms the contractual basis on which shipyards price, allocate resources and execute work. Any ambiguity or omission at this stage can result in variation orders, commercial claims or changes in the schedule once the vessel is already committed to the yard.
With their detailed knowledge of each vessel, trading pattern and client expectations, BSM’s fleet teams play the central role. They remain fully accountable for delivery, vessel performance and client communication. They plan and oversee the docking alongside the management of their day-to-day fleet operations.
At the same time, dry dockings are infrequent but disproportionately impactful events. They require a different depth of technical and commercial focus. And so, in particular, for long or complex dockings, fleet teams can bring in a specialist from BSM’s Central Dry Docking Team for support.
“The objective of bringing in a specialist is not to dilute fleet ownership or accountability or to increase the scope unnecessarily, but to ensure that known requirements are captured upfront, when they can be planned, scheduled and priced transparently”, underlines Ramkrishnan Vellur, Group Manager, Central Maintenance Support. “It is always the fleet teams who are responsible for vessel performance and client relationships.”
As the Central Dry Docking Team regularly supports projects of all vessel types across different regions, it brings broad experience and understanding of shipyard practices and market benchmarks. “Over the last couple of years, we have been directly involved with projects covering LPG carriers, tankers, bulk carriers, container vessels, cruise and offshore vessels. Our team has the experience to support all vessel types under BSM management”, says Vellur.
The team can anticipate how specifications will be interpreted by yards, where assumptions may be made and how pricing structures are built. It can therefore provide targeted reinforcement during key phases of the dry dock: when it comes to planning, specification finalisation, class and regulatory interpretation, yard selection and negotiations.
The specialists can also identify latent repair risks, close potential contractual gaps and ensure that the scope of work accurately reflects the vessel’s condition and regulatory obligations. Hari Krishna from the Central Dry Docking Team explains: “We do a lot of risk mitigation, and we will also ensure that the final invoice from the yard is reasonable and corresponds to the work carried out. Just recently, we supported one of our fleet teams and managed to reduce the final cost by 5-6% in a Chinese shipyard.”
“Being able to build on the expertise of colleagues who do this several times a year is a great advantage. It can considerably enhance the negotiating position of our fleet teams and make dry dockings more efficient for our clients”, says Thorge Linne, Fleet Director, BSM Germany, who brings in a specialist whenever it makes sense. “The secret to success always lies in thorough upfront planning and full transparency with our clients”, he concludes.
Ramkrishnan Vellur
Group Manager, Central Maintenance Support
ContactRamkrishnan Vellur
Group Manager, Central Maintenance Support
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