RollDock and SAL Heavy Lift announced plans to join forces for roll-on/roll-off and float-in/float-out heavy lift cargoes, saying they will launch a “world’s first” pool for dock vessels from April 1, 2018.
The pool will consist of the combined fleet of six vessels and will be managed by RollDock with SAL providing specialized heavy break bulk cargo support. Five of the vessels comes from the existing RollDock fleet (S and ST class vessels) and one from SAL (Combi Dock I).
Both companies will also continue independently and operate vessels outside the pool.
“Both SAL and RollDock stands for superior shipping solutions in their respective fields, where we place the engineering part of our work at the forefront,” said RollDock CEO, Paul Könst. “With our pool, we will be offering a competitive yet high quality heavy transport service.”
SAL Managing Director, Martin Harren, said, “Between RollDock and SAL, we quickly saw the advantages of working together. Through a consolidation, we will see a better utilization of the vessels and because we share our network of offices and agents, we can offer global representation of heavy shipping disciplines.”
SAL Commercial Director, Justin Archard, added, “SAL wants to keep its place in the roll-on/roll-off and float-in/float-out market, however we also realize that our core service is lift operations. Whenever clients look for heavy transportation – with lifting, rolling or floating services or a combination – our setup offers them a one-stop-shop.”