Hamburg, 13 January 2020

SAL Heavy Lift is taking further steps to strengthen and develop its digital landscape by creating a new executive function that focusses on Information Technology and Digitalization.

With the dawn of the new year, SAL is taking action to ensure its further growth strategy, by strengthening its efforts towards digitalization. SAL and owners Harren & Partner have appointed Claas Matthies, Managing Director, as the new group Chief Information Officer (CIO). He takes on the leadership of the group’s digital strategy combined with responsibility for Group Accounting and Merger & Acquisition activities.

“Digitalization of business processes is becoming an ever more competitive parameter and we see great potential in developing our digital landscape even further from today. As a modern and dynamic shipping group, information technology plays a vital role in our further growth and development. I am happy to see Claas taking on this challenge in combination with his other activities within Group accounting and our M&A activities,” states Dr. Martin Harren, CEO, SAL Heavy Lift. 

This move aims to contribute to the increased profit growth and strategic development of SAL and Harren & Partner. Alongside this new position comes the appointment of a new Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), in the form of Mr. Soeren Bibow who joins SAL and Harren & Partner after a more than 20-year long career with leading German corporate banking institutions at which he oversaw shipping and maritime investments.

Dr. Martin Harren goes on to state: “We are extremely pleased to see Soeren joining our management team. His tremendous experience and wide-ranging connections to the international banking world, paired with deep knowledge about Corporate Finance and Controlling, underlines that Soeren will play a key role in developing and executing on our strategic growth targets.” 

Soeren Bibow will take on the responsibility for the areas Financing, Treasury and Controlling and be part of the Group Executive Team.

“I look forward to being part of this highly experienced and motivated team and to take on the future challenges and the great work that lies ahead of us. I relish the task of continuing the successful development of SAL and Harren & Partner,” says Soeren Bibow.

The appointments were effective as of 6^th January 2020.

ENDS

About SAL Heavy Lift

SAL Heavy Lift, a member of the Harren & Partner Group, is one of the world’s leading carriers specialized in sea transport of heavy lift and project cargo. The modern fleet of heavy lift vessels offers highly flexible options to customers both within project shipping as well as in offshore projects. With travel speeds of up to 20 knots, up to 3500 square metres of unobstructed main deck space and combined crane capacities ranging from 550 to 2000 tons the fleet belongs to the most advanced in the heavy lift sector.

With the Type 183 fleet, equipped with dynamic position systems and an optional mountable Fly-Jib for greater crane outreach, SAL offers offshore services to multiple sectors. With the Type 171 and 116, SAL holds a fleet of heavy lift vessels with 1A ice class, capable of trading in arctic waters and northern sea route transits. 

As a leading global company in the heavy lift and project cargo segment, SAL meets the highest standards with regard to quality, technical innovation, health, safety and environment. SAL’s latest investments in advanced hydrogen/methanol power generators, takes an industry leading step in applying green technology to its fleet. The global outreach of SAL is ensured via own sales offices and exclusive agents spread across more than 20 countries.

Hamburg, 17 December 2019

SAL Heavy Lift is happy to announce that it will expand its fleet with three heavy lift vessels with 800t lifting capacity in early 2020. They will come to serve breakbulk and heavy lift clients on world markets via SALs well known Semi-Liner Service, but will also potentially offer new service options.

When the new year 2020 dawns, SAL will see its fleet expanding with three vessels – an addition that aims to strengthen its semi-liner service and underline SAL as a leading player in the heavy lift and project cargo segment. The vessels will enter the SAL fleet as type “171” following the long tradition of categorizing vessels at SAL.

The vessels are reliable workhorses of the well-known and commonly recognized P1 Type design. They are geared with two 400t SWL cranes capable of lifting up to 800 tons in tandem plus an additional 120t SWL crane. They will service clients along SAL’s main trade lanes between Europe and the Far East, but also SAL’s more recently introduced Africa service.

Karsten Behrens, Director, SAL Engineering; “The Type 171 vessels come with certain technical features such as ice class E3, equivalent to Finnish/Swedish 1A – amongst the highest in the industry.”

The vessels can operate in arctic areas and SAL will now offer Northeast passage transits when suitable.

Karsten Behrens continues; “The vessels also have very high crane pedestals which provide a much greater lifting height, in fact amongst the best in our fleet. In combination with the strong hydraulic hatch covers and large box-shaped holds with multiple tween deck configurations, it gives us an array of options when taking break bulk cargo onboard.”      

Sebastian Westphal, CTO, SAL Heavy Lift adds; “The vessels are, as the rest of our fleet, equipped with reliable high-quality machinery. With cranes from TTS-NMF, main engines from MAN and MacGregor hatch covers, the vessels are built with equipment with which we have tremendous experience. Despite obvious design differences with our other vessels the Type 171 will be reliable work tools in our fleet and will add value.”

SAL is strengthening its fleet during a time when a greater part of its existing heavy lift fleet is engaged in renewable and oil & gas projects.

Dr. Martin Harren, CEO, SAL Heavy Lift says; I am very happy that we have been able to add these vessels to our heavy lift fleet. This way SAL will be able to service clients who may at times look for ships that can take larger volumes of cargo in combination with heavy lift items. With SAL Engineering providing the engineering solutions and our SAL crew manning the vessels, we continue to offer our well-known SAL quality and know-how, but on a larger scale – something that I am sure clients, both new and existing, will come to appreciate.”

“MV Hanna”, “MV Klara” and “MV Lisa” will join the SAL fleet in the first quarter of 2020. These names represent family members of the former owner Heino Winter Group which will continue to handle the technical ship management of the three vessels.

Dr. Martin Harren concludes: “We have a long-lasting relation with the Winter family, and I am happy to see their continued involvement with these three ‘large ladies’.”

Further details, including specific take over dates and more information about the vessels can be found on SAL’s website.

About SAL Heavy Lift

SAL Heavy Lift, a member of the Harren & Partner Group, is one of the world’s leading carriers specialized in sea transport of heavy lift and project cargo. The company was founded in 1980 as “Schiffahrtskontor Altes Land GmbH & Co. KG” and belongs to Harren & Partner Group since 2017. The modern fleet of heavy lift vessels offers highly flexible options to customers both within project shipping as well as in offshore projects. The vessels boast an impressive travel speed of 20 knots, up to 3500 square metres of unobstructed main deck space and combined crane capacities ranging from 550 to 2000 tons: amongst the world’s highest lifting capacity in the heavy lift sector.

With the Type 183 fleet, being equipped with dynamic position systems and an optional mountable Fly-Jib for greater crane outreach, SAL Heavy Lift offers offshore services to multiple sectors. As a leading global company in the heavy lift and project cargo segment, the company meets the highest standards with regard to quality, technical innovation and health, safety and environment.

Hamburg, 11 December 2019

SAL Heavy Lift sets itself as a green-tech front runner and becomes the first shipping company in the world to adopt a new hydrogen/methanol technology to its fleet. With significant emission reductions in terms of CO2, SOx, NOx and other particles, the injection technology developed by FUELSAVE GmbH paves the way for making shipping greener and more energy efficient.

After more than four years of close cooperation, testing and development between SAL and FUELSAVE GmbH, alongside project stakeholders EcoTune Marine, Classification Society DNV GL as RO for Antigua and Barbuda flag, Carl Baguhn, MAN Energy solutions, M.A.C. System Solutions, AVL and last but not least the flag state administration of Germany, the new and advanced FS MARINE+ hydrogen / methanol injection solution is now entering the next stage of validation, after which it will find its way to six SAL vessels as a permanent installation.

By dynamically injecting a mix of hydrogen, oxygen, water and methanol into selected parts of the air intake of both the main engine and the auxiliary engines, the FS MARINE+ system ensures a much cleaner and thorough combustion process, resulting in reduced primary fuel consumption alongside lowering emissions and air pollution.

“SAL has always been a frontrunner when it comes to innovation and we are dedicated to make shipping more efficient and cleaner by using technologies that creates a long-lasting effect”; says Sebastian Westphal, CTO of SAL Heavy Lift.

He continues: “We have tested a prototype on a generator engine of our MV Annette over more than two years with very convincing results. The FS MARINE+ system not only achieved significant fuel savings, but also emission and air pollution reductions which was verified by 3^rd parties both during field trials and in laboratory tests.

Marc Sima, CEO of FUELSAVE GmbH comments; “We are proud to have SAL Heavy Lift GmbH as our customer, and help them to become the most innovative, efficient and sustainable shipping company within their field. With this system we are driving the clean fuel transition with a high impact solution. It can optimize the energy consumption and the environmental impact significantly irrespective of what fuel type you operate your vessel with. Thus, it is applicable with MDO, MGO, HFO, LSFO as well as LNG. We are looking forward together with SAL to take a lead in supporting the shipping industry in its efforts to become more environmentally sustainable.

By investing millions of dollars into retrofitting the system to the main engines and auxiliary engines on existing vessels it may appear that SAL is taking a big financial bet, but the results in terms of savings and payback time proves quite the opposite. Jakob Christiansen, Naval Architect and Head of SALs Fleet Development Team, states: “We ran the system for two years without a single incident and obtained results that matched the promised numbers. So, we see a technology that meets our green ambitions while also reducing the technical operating costs of the ships”.

The FS MARINE+ generator has proven to make average reductions of 10% less CO2, 15% less SOx, 30-80% less NOx and 40% less particle emissions.

SAL’s MV Trina is the first vessel to be retrofitted with the  FS MARINE+ system in Q1 2020. Following a successful system integration on MV Trina, five more vessels will follow – ready to pave the way for a greener & more energy efficient shipping service.

About SAL Heavy Lift

SAL Heavy Lift, a member of the Harren & Partner Group, is one of the world’s leading carriers specialized in sea transport of heavy lift and project cargo. The company was founded in 1980 as “Schiffahrtskontor Altes Land GmbH & Co. KG” and belongs to Harren & Partner Group since 2017. The modern fleet of heavy lift vessels offers highly flexible options to customers both within project shipping as well as in offshore projects. The vessels boast an impressive travel speed of 20 knots, up to 3500 m² of unobstructed main deck space and combined crane capacities ranging from 550 to 2000 tons: amongst the world’s highest lifting capacity in the heavy lift sector.

With the Type 183 fleet, being equipped with dynamic position systems and an optional mountable Fly-Jib for greater crane outreach, SAL Heavy Lift offers offshore services to multiple sectors. As a leading global company in the heavy lift and project cargo segment, the company meets the highest standards with regard to quality, technical innovation and health, safety and the environment.

Houston, 17 June 2019

It is with pleasure that SAL Heavy Lift GmbH and their American subsidiary SAL Heavy Lift Inc. announce the appointment of Mr. Phillip Brown as Vice President – Projects, to the Houston based sales team.  Commencing 1st July 2019 Phillip with his extensive knowledge of the U.S. project transport segment will add considerable strength to SAL’s chartering and marketing activities.

Formerly Global Chartering Manager at Global EPC, Fluor Corp., and with a BSc. in Maritime Administration, Phillip is uniquely experienced in understanding the demands of the EPC community.  This experience will significantly contribute to SAL’s relentless pursuit of providing industry leading client focused service.   

Anders Hyrup, President SAL Heavy Lift Inc. states: “Phillip will be a great asset to our team – his skillset suits our company and the services we market very well. It was clear from our first talk with Phillip that his approach to shipping logistics and value-based service mind-set fits our team perfectly. I know we will benefit tremendously for having Phillip on-board and I am excited to see him joining the team in a few weeks.”

ENDS

About SAL Heavy Lift

SAL Heavy Lift, a member of the Harren & Partner Group, is one of the world’s leading carriers specialized in sea transport of heavy lift and project cargo. The company was founded in 1980 as “Schiffahrtskontor Altes Land GmbH & Co. KG” and belongs to Harren & Partner Group since 2017. The modern fleet of heavy lift vessels offers highly flexible options to customers. The vessels of SAL Heavy Lift boast an impressive travel speed of 20 knots, up to 3500 square metres of unobstructed main deck space and combined crane capacities ranging from 550 to 2000 tons: amongst the world’s highest lifting capacity in the heavy lift sector. As a leading global company in the heavy lift and project cargo segment, the company meets the highest standards with regard to quality, technical innovation and health, safety and environment.

–Hamburg, 11 June 2019

“The sky is the limit” – SAL Heavy Lift is ready to reach further and lift higher with its latest acquisition – a highly configurable crane boom extension that with its modular design offer clients unrivalled lifting height and applicability. The so-called Fly-Jib is designed for the cranes of SAL’s Type 183 vessels (MV Lone & MV Svenja) and can be installed to each of their main cranes’ booms. MV Lone is the first vessel in the SAL fleet to proudly carry this exciting new piece of equipment.

Sheer excitement was present when SAL witnessed its latest and greatest tool in-vestment – the Fly-Jib – being mounted on to the aft crane of its mighty heavy lift vessel MV Lone. The new Fly-Jib which makes the crane hook towering some 70m high up in the air is a significant step forward for SAL in its heavy lift offering to clients in both offshore renewables and oil & gas markets.

With the much greater lifting height and further outreach, SAL’s new Fly-Jib can meet clients demands when units become ever bigger and where one faces requirements to lift long components vertically – e.g. with offshore wind equipment. A challenge SAL faces just now with an offshore piling project.

Sune Thorleifsson, Head of Marine Projects, SAL states; “Our Fly-Jib has long been on our wish list, but when a client recently approached us with the requirement to support on driving piles into the seabed for an offshore wind project, and the piles be-ing so long that it was otherwise not possible to up-end them for installation, we saw the opportunity to realise this long term dream”. 

SAL Heavy Lift’s sister company SAL Engineering has worked intensively with crane maker TTS-NMF to design and develop a Fly-Jib that can suit a wide array of scopes, hence a dismountable and modular design was conceived.

Karsten Behrens, Director, SAL Engineering explains; We worked for a long time on various designs together with TTS-NMF – the manufacturer of the cranes on our Type 183 vessels. It was essential that in addition to strong lifting capabilities, that it could be configurable in various modes hence adding to its applicability in various working scopes. Therefore, the Fly-Jib can be configured in a long (23m) or a short (13m) set-up and is adjustable in three different angles. It is designed to be interchangeable be-tween our Type 183 vessels and can, with modifications to the existing jib, be in-stalled on each of the cranes”.

The Fly-Jib is designed to withstand the forces occurring during a sea voyage and can be installed using only the vessels existing cranes.

Sebastian Westphal, Corporate Director – Ship Management & Engineering adds; “It has been a significant achievement from the entire team behind, from design to manufacturing and then later to installation during a project’s vessel mobilization. It is great to see now that the concept works so well in reality and that the installation procedure of mounting the Fly-Jib onto the existing crane boom proceeded quickly and with no compromise on quality – it is no small thing that you attach. The lifting capabilities the vessel gains with it are tremendous. It will be used many times in the months to come during an offshore wind project and certainly in a number of projects thereafter.”

For work with offshore wind equipment or within oil & gas, SAL can with their new Fly-Jib support a wide array of assignments.  Now equipped on the DPII vessel MV Lone with her two 1000 t SWL cranes, large open deck, a cavernous cargo hold, SPS certification and an unrivalled speed of up to 20kts proves as a powerful and very versatile package to meet the demands of some of the most extreme challenges in the industry today. 

End

About SAL Heavy Lift

SAL Heavy Lift, a member of the Harren & Partner Group, is one of the world’s leading carriers specialized in sea transport of heavy lift and project cargo. The company was founded in 1980 as “Schiffahrtskontor Altes Land GmbH & Co. KG” and belongs to Harren & Partner Group since 2017. The modern fleet of heavy lift vessels offers highly flexible options to customers. The vessels of SAL Heavy Lift boast an impressive travel speed of 20 knots, up to 3500 square metres of unobstructed main deck space and combined crane capacities ranging from 550 to 2000 tons: amongst the world’s highest lifting capacity in the heavy lift sector. As a leading global company in the heavy lift and project cargo segment, the company meets the highest standards with regard to quality, technical innovation and health, safety and environment.

SAL Heavy Lift and Davila Group come together to establish SAL Heavy Lift, Spain.  

SAL Heavy Lift GmbH is proud to announce that together with its Spanish business partner Grupo Davila (Davila Group), a new entity has been formed to represent SAL in the Spanish market.

As of 1st of April 2019, SAL Heavy Lift, Spain will open its doors to Spanish clients.

In charge will be Sr. Carlos Claramunt Lebrón – a familiar name to many, who brings 15 years of commercial and technical experience in the maritime industry to the role. 

Eduardo Davila, President of Davila Group, says: “I am honored to have SAL as a close business partner and to be able to present SAL Heavy Lift, Spain to the Spanish market. We share the same passion for shipping and both companies represents the best of shipping within our respective fields. I am confident that with the closer ties we are creating between us, we will provide the best possible service to our clients wherever they are in Spain.”

The concept is a new one to both SAL and Davila. It takes the most relevant elements of each company to create a dedicated and client focused service offering in the local market. 

Justin Archard, Chief Operating Officer of SAL Heavy Lift, explains; “With Davila Group, we saw the right partner to advance this concept. We have worked with the Davila Group and family for a long time, and the timing and opportunity for this step suited us both.  Davila has been a significant part of the Spanish shipping industry for more than 100 years and I have no doubt that we have the best possible partner to help develop the SAL brand in the Spanish market.”

Carlos Claramunt Lebrón: 15 years of experience within the maritime sector, 5 years in heavy lift shipping. A qualified Naval Architect.  Carlos can connect sales and marketing with deep technical knowledge and understanding.  SAL Heavy Lift, Spain will reside in Madrid.

aAbout SAL Heavy Lift

SAL Heavy Lift, a member of the Harren & Partner Group, is one of the world’s leading carriers specialized in sea transport of heavy lift and project cargo. The company was founded in 1980 as “Schiffahrtskontor Altes Land GmbH & Co. KG” and belongs to Harren & Partner Group since 2017. The modern fleet of heavy lift vessels offers highly flexible options to customers. The vessels of SAL Heavy Lift boast an impressive travel speed of 20 knots, up to 3500 m² of unobstructed main deck space and combined crane capacities ranging from 550 to 2000 tons: amongst the world’s highest lifting capacity in the heavy lift sector. As a leading global company in the heavy lift and project cargo segment, the company meets the highest standards with regard to quality, technical innovation and health, safety and environment.

www.sal-heavylift.com

About Grupo Davila

The Davila Group is a family owned company whose origins date back to its parent company Joaquin Davila & Cia, which was founded in 1917. The Davila Group is a Spanish based company with more than 100 years of experience in the Spanish maritime sector, and with a strong inter-national presence in South America.

The Group’s main services include amongst others: a network of agencies dedicated to the representation of tramp and liner vessels, the managing and development of container and reefer terminals, reparation and maintenance of dry and reefer containers, project cargo and container forwarding focused in all the different areas of the supply chain, customs agents with special focus in perishable cargo, mega yacht management and brokerage and their own Marina located in Vigo which includes one of the best known restaurants in the city.

The key of the Group’s success resides in its qualified team of professionals and a personalized service to fit customer’s needs. 

www.grupodavila.es

With the loading of eight custom-made Damen tugs, German heavy lift expert Combi Lift reached an important milestone in the Gazprom Amur Gas Processing Plant Project in Russia. This officially marks the transition period between the project’s intense planning and long-awaited implementation stages.

Combi Lift, contracted by the Linde Group as the exclusive logistics partner for oversized and heavy cargo, chose to cooperate with SAL Heavy Lift in this project. On behalf of Combi Lift, SAL’s Type 161B vessel MV Annette loaded eight newly built tugs in the Waalhaven in the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The tugs will be shipped to De-Kastri, Russia to play an important role in the Gazprom Amur GPP Project. The four Amur River tugs and four Zeya River shallow draft tugs were custom-built by the Damen Shipyards Group for this project, and are designed to cope with extremely low water levels, especially in the Zeya River.

“We appreciate Damen’s professionalism, good teamwork and smooth handling of all production processes. A punctual and reliable delivery of the tugs was essential for the progress and success of this important project. We are very satisfied with the great teamwork and the quality of all tugs,” explains Heiko Felderhoff, CEO at Combi Lift.

All loaded and transported tugs included initial outfitting and spare parts packages. Handling this cargo and loading it directly out of the water was no problem: A customised rigging arrangement ensured safe loading procedures. The Amur River tugs, measuring 24.88 m x 11.97 m x 10.3 m and weighing 272 t each, and the Zeya River shallow draft tugs, measuring 25.9 m x 8.5 m x 8.3 m and weighing 150 t each, were stowed on deck with an overhang of up to 2,600 mm to each side.

All engineering planning, including stowage planning, rigging arrangement, lifting plans, cribbing plans and sea fastening calculations, was performed in-house in close cooperation with SAL Heavy Lift, another member of the Harren & Partner Group. Very tight stowage planning was necessary to realise the transportation of all eight tugs in one shipment. All of the tugs will sail under the Russian flag, and are certified by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RMRS) and the Russian River Register (RRR).

MV Annette will now continue her journey from Rotterdam to De-Kastri via the Suez Channel and Singapore to bring the tugs to their final destination. At the same time, customised barges and side floaters will be shipped from Damen Yichang via Shanghai to De-Kastri. Once all of the assets have arrived in their final port in early May, the next stage of this exciting project can begin.

About the project: Spanning 2,824 kilometres, the Amur River is the world’s tenth longest river, forming the border between the far eastern part of Russia and north-eastern China. All project cargo needs to be discharged in Svobodny, located on the right bank of the Zeya River, a northern tributary of the Amur River. Heavy lift transportation is quite challenging in a place like this: The water is only 1.10 metres deep in some areas, and weather conditions are often severe.

Combi Lift developed a sophisticated concept to master this difficult feat: Heavy lift vessels will transport the cargo from ports in Europe and Korea, which then will be transferred to barges on the sheltered inner anchorage of the port of De-Kastri. Special shallow draft pusher tugs will tow the barges up the Amur and Zeya Rivers to Svobodny for discharging at jetty and transfer the cargo to the last mile logistics service provider.

Gazprom, The Linde Group, Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk and NIPIGAS will use the delivered components for the Gazprom Amur GPP Project – one of the largest natural gas processing plants in the world, with a capacity of up to 42 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year. The plant is part of Gazprom’s project to supply Russian gas from eastern Siberian gas fields to China using the “Power of Siberia” pipeline. This will be built in five phases and completed by 2024.

The cargo will be shipped in five phases from 2018 to 2022, taking advantage of the ice-free periods on the Amur and Zeya Rivers.

About Combi Lift: Over the last 18 years, Combi Lift’s experienced mariners and engineers have become experts in the worldwide marine transport of heavy lift and project cargoes. From the outset, Combi Lift has focussed on developing smart and efficient engineering solutions for complex logistics tasks. The Harren & Partner Group affiliate provides clients with customised solutions that suit individual demands and expectations, developed in close cooperation with expert teams.
For more information about Combi Lift, go to www.combi-lift.net
For more information about SAL Heavy Lift, go to www.sal-heavylift.com
For more information about Harren & Partner, go to www.harren-partner.de

Hamburg, 26 March 2018 –  SAL Heavy Lift announces a brand new regular service linking West, South and East Africa with North Europe, the Arabian Gulf and Indian sub-Continent.

SAL Heavy Lift, is pleased to announce a new regular Africa service in response to the quickly developing oil and gas, refining and transport infrastructure sectors, particularly in West Africa.

Scheduled to provide clients a minimum of two sailings per month in each direction via The Cape of Good Hope, SAL’s famous service quality will now reach even further and offer clients even more options including calls to either North/South America or Australia on inducement.

SAL views a regular Africa service as a logical extension of its existing regular North Europe to Far East service (via Suez) which has been providing clients with high quality engineered shipping services for over 35 years.

Jürgen Kuntz, Head of the Africa Chartering Desk at SAL says of the move: “At SAL our reputation for strong, reliable and effective solutions is well-established. We have considerable knowledge of African operations and excellent partners across the Continent and we hope to build on this with our new venture; not only by offering shipping services but as well providing logistics capabilities and technical, on-site support and consultancy through our sister company, SAL Engineering.”

About SAL Heavy Lift

SAL Heavy Lift, a member of the Harren & Partner Group, is one of the world’s leading carriers specialized in sea transport of heavy lift and project cargo. The company was founded in 1980 as “Schiffahrtskontor Altes Land GmbH & Co. KG” and belongs to Harren & Partner Group since 2017. The modern fleet of 21 heavy lift vessels offers highly flexible options to customers. The vessels of SAL Heavy Lift boast an impressive travel speed of 20 knots, up to 3500 square metres of unobstructed main deck space and combined crane capacities ranging from 550 to 2000 tons: amongst the world’s highest lifting capacity in the heavy lift sector. As a leading global company in the heavy lift and project cargo segment, the company meets the highest standards with regard to quality, technical innovation and health, safety and environment.