SAL Heavy Lift returns to German Flag

Hamburg - SAL Heavy Lift GmbH, one of the leading heavy lift carriers worldwide, returning to the German Flag. SAL Heavy Lift is proud to announce that six of its vessels will shortly be flying the German flag. Starting with MV SVENJA on Sept 22nd, MV TRINA, MV ANNE-SOFIE, MV REGINE, MV MARIA and MV WIEBKE will quickly follow. With the home port of Hamburg, the city in which SAL Heavy Lift is also established, the company is build- ing on its German heritage and setting its course for the future. “We are very proud to return to the German Flag,” says Sebastian Westphal, Corpo- rate 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 cor- porate objectives goes well in hand.” “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.” By choosing the German flag SAL Heavy Lift also contributes to maintaining the Ger- man maritime cluster with its unique shipping know-how. Training on board vessels flying the German flag is ranked top-class internationally. In the long term, top level maritime training in Germany can only be sustained with seafarers employed under the German flag. Working together with the German Social Accident Insurance Institution for Commer- cial Transport, Postal Logistics and Telecommunication (BG Verkehr) and DNV GL as classification society, the re-flagging process will be handled by leading special- ists. The decision to re-flag follows careful considerations on the fleet management pro- cess in SAL. Sebastian Westphal comments: “In view of the many benefits of the German Flag, we decided to initiate the re-flagging process. We are happy with the good cooperation we have had with BG Verkehr and DNV GL on the matter, and I know our crew onboard is proud to hoist the German flag.”