The year 2020 has been a very successful one for South Shields based Solar Solve, in spite of the Covid-19 setbacks all people and organisations have had to endure globally.
Renowned worldwide as a prolific exporter, one of the marine equipment manufacturers many achievements was the supply of its brand leading SOLASAFE roller sunscreens, to a series of 8 Very Large LNG Carriers, built by HHI in South Korea.
All of the vessels were constructed to exactly the same design and destined for Greek shipowners/managers.
These Very Large Liquefied Natural Gas Carriers are 300mts long; 46mts breadth; 25.5mts depth; 81,451 Metric tonnes dwt; with a full cargo capacity of 174,000m3. The service speed is 19.5 knots with a cruising range of 24,100 nautical miles. You can see a super photo of ARISTOS I HERE
SOLASAFE roller sunscreens are Type Approved by the 4 major Classification Societies and guaranteed for 7 years. They are installed at a vessels navigation bridge windows as a navigation safety aid. When in use they will reject up to 87% of the infra-red light (heat), 99% of the uv light and 93% of the glare that passes through the windows into the enclosed space, improving significantly the working environment for the personnel inside.
Solar Solve regularly accomplishes successes like this one, because the bigger shipbuilders, like Hyundai Heavy Industries, usually deliver approximately five vessels a month, which creates opportunities like this all the time.
A total of 192 of the 845 SOLASAFE screens that Solar Solve supplied to HHI during 2020, were installed at the wheelhouse windows of these 8 standard design vessels. The other 653 screens were installed on a further 33 vessels of various types.
Amongst those other vessels were a series of 5 Very Large Container Carriers of 134,508 dwt and 14,000 teu capacity, built for South Korean owners. A total of 110 of the SOLASAFE screens were supplied for these vessels, leaving 543 screens for the remaining 28 vessels.
John Lightfoot MBE, Solar Solve’s very proud company chairman commented, “The whole team at Solar Solve are extremely pleased that we were able to trade for the whole of 2020, even when the factory was forced to close for 3 weeks on 24 March. The nature of the team is such that additional facilities were quickly put in place to enable home working for as many people as possible, so that we could deal with all enquiries, ready for a return to our production facility. The greatest advantage of exporting is that there is always someone, somewhere in the world who wants to do business and we take full advantage of it.”
“The blessing for us is that most shipyards around the world maintained an impressive output level and the global marine industry did not see a drastic reduction in demand for services, apart from the cruise and ferry sector.”
“And finally, a bit of icing on the cake. In June last year, the world’s biggest container carrier, HMM Algeciras, with a capacity of 24,000 teu; a length of 1,312ft and breadth of 200ft, arrived in Essex, from China, to drop off containers of imports and load containers of UK exports. There are SOLASAFE screens installed at all 21 of the vessel’s navigation bridge windows.” The Daily Mail Online story can be found HERE.
John H Lightfoot MBE
