SAL has joined forces with heavy lift specialist Jumbo Shipping as part of its strategy to grow Transatlantic trade.According to Jürgen Kuntz, head of the Africa chartering Desk at SAL Heavy Lift, there are significant opportunities to develop this trade thanks to the commercial expansion the company is undertaking with the Jumbo-SAL-alliance. “We believe we can gain traction due to the wider scope of available services. In general, we believe that if you can establish a one-stop-shop for the project cargo sector, it would be in high demand and beneficial to the sector. It would provide a logistics partner you can integrate into your value chain of activities and thereby reduce the risk of your project.”He said the Jumbo-SAL-Alliance was now the common commercial entry point and common interface for any commercial shipping activity undertaken by both companies. “That means that we now have a common f leet of 30 heavylift vessels and 22 offices worldwide. It allows us to deliver solutions through our shared resources. In terms of technical services, we have a joint team of almost 100 engineers.”This means the company can cater for a range of customers. “We can easily service the customer looking for complex solutions involving high-volume scopes under a contract of affreightments (COAs), single technical shipments, or just those who have some breakbulk cargo that they need to have shipped. The larger f leet, and our even more extensive network, provide a much greater degree of f lexibility and larger scope of services.”Kuntz said this was something the company was punting in and around Africa. “In terms of operations, we have two to three monthly sailings between Europe and West Coast Africa, with Nigeria as a hub in a tramp setup. In addition, we have one to two sailings a month from Asia, calling East African ports, or alternatively going around the Cape towards West Africa on a tramp basis as well.”He said other than the alliance with Jumbo, another significant change had been the acquisition of Intermarine LLC, which traditionally has been very strong on the Atlantic trade and inter-Americas.“This means that we serve the Atlantic trade between West Africa and South America much better than we have been able to in the past. This is something we would like to grow in the future.”
