Hamburg-headquartered SAL Heavy Lift confirmed that it would add three 19,100-dwt ships to its fleet during the first quarter of 2020.
The P1-type ships are reliable workhorses and will be deployed on the carrier’s main trade lanes between Europe and the Far East, and on SAL Heavy Lift’s Africa service.
Hanna (built 2011), Klara (built 2012) and Lisa (built 2011) are all geared with two 400-tonne capacity cranes that can work in tandem to handle 800-tonne loads, plus an additional 120-tonne lifting capacity crane.
“The vessels also have very high crane pedestals which provide a much greater lifting height, in fact amongst the best in our fleet,” said Karsten Behrens, director, SAL Engineering. “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 on board.”
He added that the Type 171 vessels come equipped with ice-class E3 classification, equivalent to Finnish/Swedish 1A. They can operate in Arctic areas and the carrier will offer services via the Northeast Passage when suitable.
Sebastian Westphal, chief technical officer at SAL Heavy Lift commented: “The vessels are, as the rest of our fleet, equipped with reliable high-quality machinery. With cranes from TTS-NMF, main engines from MAN and MacGregor hatch covers, the vessels are built with equipment with which we have tremendous experience. Despite obvious design differences with our other vessels the Type 171 will be reliable work tools in our fleet and will add value.”
Dr. Martin Harren, ceo at SAL Heavy Lift said: “I am very happy that we have been able to add these vessels to our heavy lift fleet. 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 item.
“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.
Heino Winter Group, the former owner of the three ships, will continue to provide technical management.
