SAL Strengthens Fleet with Heavy Lift Trio

Hamburg-based SAL Heavy Lift will bolster its fleet with three more heavy lift vessels with 800t lifting capacity in early 2020, the company announced.

The vessels, MV Hanna, MV Klara, and MV Lisa, will enter the SAL fleet as type 171 and will serve breakbulk and heavy-lift clients on world markets via SALs Semi-Liner Service.

They are geared with two 400t SWL cranes capable of lifting up to 800 tons in tandem plus an additional 120t SWL crane. They will service clients along SAL’s main trade lanes between Europe and the Far East, but also SAL’s more recently introduced Africa service. The vessels can operate in arctic areas and SAL will now offer Northeast passage transits when suitable.

 “The Type 171 vessels come with certain technical features such as ice class E3, equivalent to Finnish/Swedish 1A – amongst the highest in the industry,” Karsten Behrens, Director, SAL Engineering, said.

“The vessels also have very high crane pedestals which provide a much greater lifting height, in fact amongst the best in our fleet. In combination with the strong hydraulic hatch covers and large box-shaped holds with multiple tween deck configurations, it gives us an array of options when taking break bulk cargo onboard.”

SAL is strengthening its fleet during a time when a greater part of its existing heavy-lift fleet is engaged in renewable and oil & gas projects.

Commenting on the fleet expansion, Dr. Martin Harren, CEO, SAL Heavy Lift said that this way SAL will be able to service clients who may at times look for ships that can take larger volumes of cargo in combination with heavy lift items.

“With SAL Engineering providing the engineering solutions and our SAL crew manning the vessels, we continue to offer our well-known SAL quality and know-how, but on a larger scale – something that I am sure clients, both new and existing, will come to appreciate,” he added.