Germany: SAL Heavy Lift Opens New Head Office

March 26, 2013

The maritime location in HafenCity Hamburg is growing: SAL Heavy Lift has opened the doors of its new head office at Brooktorkai 20. The premises sprawl over the 6th floor; 116 employees are working here. SAL Heavy Lift, a member of the Japanese “K” Line Group, is one of the leading heavy lift shipping companies worldwide. For more than 30 years, SAL Heavy Lift had been based in Steinkirchen on the Lower Elbe, 40 kilometers outside of Hamburg.

From now on SAL Heavy Lift will operate its fleet of 16 heavy lift vessels from Hamburg’s HafenCity. At the beginning of this year a new Offshore Department was founded to serve the expanding markets of heavy equipment transportation for the oil and gas industry as well as the installation of offshore wind parks. With this extended service portfolio as well as the team growing recently from 100 to 116, the old SAL headquarters in Steinkirchen had come to its limits.

“The strong maritime location of Hamburg is perfect for SAL Heavy Lift to extend its professional network as well as the proximity to its customers”, says Lars Rolner, CEO of SAL Heavy Lift. “The infrastructure of Hamburg’s HafenCity is excellent. Many important partners and companies of the shipping industry are located here and the central location with short ways to the airport and the main train station also means easy accessibility – that is very important for our international business activities.”

Hamburg’s Senator of Economy, Frank Horch, said: “With SAL Heavy Lift, a company has moved in which enriches the maritime location. SAL Heavy Lift grows constantly, especially in transportation for the offshore area. Also that goes well with Hamburg, because we want to become the capital for wind energy in Europe.”

With the two heavy lifters MV “Svenja” and MV “Lone”, SAL Heavy Lift has two of the biggest heavy lift vessels, worldwide, with a combined crane capacity of 2,000 mtons SWL. SAL’s ships are continuously in service.

[mappress]

Press release, March 26, 2013; Image: sal