SAL Heavy Lift christened its third Orca Class vessel, MV Patricia, at the Liebherr site in Rostock, Germany, during a ceremony attended by more than 350 industry representatives. Named after Patricia Rüf of Liebherr-International AG, the multipurpose heavy-lift vessel was designed to handle demanding project cargo for the offshore, renewable-energy, and industrial transport sectors.
The ship’s primary cargo-handling equipment consists of two all-electric Liebherr LS 800 E ship cranes, each providing a maximum lifting capacity of 800 tonnes and up to 1,600 tonnes in tandem operation. These cranes integrate with the vessel’s power-management system, allowing energy recovered during movements to be returned to the ship’s electrical network to reduce fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions.
Following the christening, MV Patricia departed Rostock carrying two additional Liebherr maritime cranes: an LHM 800 mobile harbour crane destined for Luanda, Angola, and an LPS 550 portal crane bound for Casablanca, Morocco. This inaugural voyage connects over three decades of collaboration between SAL and Liebherr across multiple tiers of maritime engineering and project shipping.