Despite a change in ownership, it is business as usual for SAL Heavy Lift Shipping. PES spoke to Director of Business Development Jan-Peter Esbensen at the company’s Steinkirchen HQ, about the organisation and its operations.
PES: Welcome back to PES magazine. How’s business been since we last spoke? Have you been involved with any keynote developments that you’d like to share
with us?
Jan-Peter Esbensen: Well, the big news this year is that our company ownership has changed significantly; the Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd (“K” Line Group), who have been part shareholders of SAL following several years of successful partnership, have become the sole shareholder of the SAL group. The management at “K” Line highly value the expertise of SAL in the field of heavy lift shipping, and so retained all staff and management after the share transfer. The change of ownership came about after Hans and Claus Heinrich, who have been in shipping for forty years decided to retire from daily operations. While they have retired, they will still be supporting the new owners as advisors to the board.
As far as operational news goes, this year we hit a new milestone when our vessel MV “Svenja” delivered a massive cargo – the biggest handled so far – to the New Mangalore Port. The cargo of absorbent chambers and columns for the third phase expansion of ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited (OMPL) were delivered in heavy rains so required a great deal of expertise.
PES: You touched upon the personnel shortage amongst German seafarers – how does this impact upon your operation, and what measures are you taking to improve the situation?
