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SAL Heavy Lift to Reflag 8 Vessels to German Flag

SAL Heavy Lift to Reflag 8 Vessels to German Flag

Mike Schuler
Total Views: 39
September 25, 2017

The SAL Heavy Lift vessel MV Svenja installs an underwater platform during the salvage of the Costa Concordia in Italy in 2013. Photo: Island of Giglio/Facebook

SAL Heavy Lift has announced its plan to reflag six of its heavy lift vessels to the German flag.

Hamburg-headquartered SAL says the reflagging of the vessels began with the MV SVENJA on September 22, and will continue with the MV TRINA, MV ANNE-SOFIE, MV REGINE, MV MARIA and MV WIEBKE. The new owners will also change the homeport of the six vessels to Hamburg, which is home to SAL Heavy Lift’s head office.

The reflagging comes two months after Bremen-based Harren & Partner acquired the heavy lift company from Japanese shipping company K-Line. 

“We are very proud to return to the German Flag,” says Sebastian Westphal, Corporate Director Ship Management at SAL. “The German flag stands for quality, safety, and compliance, and these are core values in SAL, so the German Flag and our corporate objectives goes well in hand.”

SAL Heavy Lift was founded in 1980 near Hamburg by members of the Heinrich family, whose roots in the German shipping industry date back to 1865. SAL has since grown to become one of the leading shipping companies specializing in heavy lift and project cargo in the 900 t to 2,000 t crane capacity range with 21 geared open-hatch general cargo vessels. 

K-Line had owned 100% of SAL since 2011 up until its sale to Harren & Partners in July 2017.

“It was a logical consequence: a German family-owned business with German-built vessels, operated by many German officers, and now provided by all the advantages of a German Flag,” Toshio Yamazaki, CEO of SAL Heavy Lift states. “We are proud to put a “made in Germany” tag to what we do – and now sailing the German Flag underlines our commitment to quality and safety.”

The re-flagging process will be handled by classification society DNV GL together with the German Social Accident Insurance Institution for Commercial Transport, Postal Logistics and Telecommunication (BG Verkehr).

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