Jumbo Shipping of Holland and Germany’s SAL Heavy Lift have launched the Jumbo-SAL-Alliance (JSA) after clearing regulatory hurdles.
The company has been formed after clearance was issued by the regulatory authorities in Germany in early April.
That freed the way for the formation of a market leader with a fleet of 30 heavylift and breakbulk vessels.
JSA is the largest company in the top end of the heavylift market with the biggest fleet of vessels that have a lifting capacity of over 800 tons.
“This joint venture is a big step for both of us. In the past few years, it became increasingly clear that the benefits of collaboration heavily outweigh the traditional way of doing business,” said Michael Kahn, managing director of Jumbo.
“Our client base and interests have changed and to remain an effective global player in our field of activity, you always need to adapt and innovate. Not only on a technical level, but also commercially."
“We believe that the flexibility and competences that our clients are looking for are best served by SAL’s and Jumbo’s combined assets and knowledge.”
Liner services and project cargoes
The new alliance will offer project and semi-liner services on a global basis.
It will serve the needs of big contractors and engineering, procurement and construction companies, as well as manufacturers and forwarders, said Jens Baumgarten, SAL director of chartering.
The company will handle regular spot market breakbulk cargoes, as well as long term contracts, including arranging third-party tonnage, he said.
Jumbo and SAL operate complementary fleets which will make the joint shipping product easy to combine and market, the companies said.
“I truly believe we are creating something extraordinary here. This strategic collaboration combines engineered transport solutions with a significant fleet of heavy lift vessels,” said Martin Harren, managing director of SAL and the Bremen-based Harren & Partner Group.
Family-owned
Jumbo and SAL are both family-owned and managed and will continue as independent operators and vessel owners.
“The JSA merges the global chartering and marketing activities of both companies, creating one large, joint sales organisation. Both brands retain their market presence in addition to the new set-up,” said Jumbo vice-president Felix Peinemann.
Rotterdam-based Jumbo already operates a fleet of 13 heavylift vessels with lifting capacity ranging from 650 to 3,000 tons.
SAL is managed from Hamburg and operates 20 heavylift vessels, 12 of which have crane capacity of more than 900 tons.
Their main competitor is another Dutch company, Spliethoff-controlled BigLift, which runs around 20 heavylifters following the acquisition of 10-vessels formerly operated by Hansa Heavy Lift in 2019.
The move marks the latest consolidatory move by Bremen-based Harren & Partner, which acquired SAL from K Line in July 2017.
In October 2020, SAL acquired a controlling stake in Houston-based MPP operator Intermarine.
The US company is run as a separate division SAL's heavylift and project cargo division, with the focus on smaller vessels of between 6,000 dwt to 10,000 dwt with smaller cranes.
