Jumbo Shipping and SAL Heavy Lift have expanded their alliance with the addition of Houston-based ship operator Intermarine, building a 50-vessel “powerhouse” in the breakbulk and project cargo shipping sectors.
The creation of heavylift vessel operator JSI Alliance comes after Netherlands-based Jumbo and Germany’s SAL had already been working together in a joint venture for three years.
The new alliance sets sail on Thursday.
The three companies will combine their fleets of multipurpose and advanced heavy-lift vessels, as well as all their commercial activities in breakbulk and project cargo. The three companies bring together a network of offices and agents across 23 countries.
Intermarine president Richard Seeg said his company and SAL, as sister companies under the umbrella of Germany’s Harren Group, have already been cooperating.
“But forming a real commercial joint venture and alliance marks the beginning of a new and greater adventure,” he said in a statement. “I’ve truly admired what Jumbo and SAL have managed to achieve over the past three years, and I’m excited to bring the Intermarine product to the joint venture.”
Intermarine operates its multipurpose ships, or MPPs, on liner services that carry project, breakbulk and heavylift on routes linking the US with Latin America and the Caribbean, with some services to Asia and Europe.
Seeg said the Intermarine addition expands services and reach, as well as bringing the US company’s strength in the Americas to the partners in the Jumbo-SAL Alliance.
The company’s ships, a mix of owned and time-chartered tonnage, are also complementary to the Jumbo and SAL fleets.
Intermarine’s ships lift up to 500 tonnes of safe working load, the bottom range of the fleet of the two partners with ships that have a lifting capacity of up to 3,000 tonnes.
SAL managing director Jens Baumgarten said the JSI partnership emerged organically through his company’s cooperation with Intermarine.
“That being said, we’ve worked intensively over the past several months to prepare and set up our structures so we can operate effectively from day one,” he said.
“We believe that the added value we create for our customers will strengthen relationships and lead to repeat transport inquiries over many years.”
