Follow Ups

There is additional information to publish on some recent callers and and notification on a first time caller.

#1. The Lake St.Clair [see November 29] completed off loading re-bar at Pier 9C and sailed on December 2. Its destination is Becancour, QC, near Sorel, QC, a port that takes a variety of imports, including steel. It is likely therefore that the ship has more rebar or structural steel to offload. Its draft was 8.7 meters, indicating substantial cargo still on board.

The cargo it unloaded at Pier 9C may be for local or regional consumption. Some rebar was being transloaded to Sunbury Transport trucks today. (Sunbury is a J.D.Irving owned company, distinguishable from a distance by their bright yellow truck tractors.)

#2 Also at Pier 9C today, while the re-bar was being forklifted onto flatbed trailers - see the yellow truck near the ship's bow in the photo - the auto carrier Brands Hatch was discharging RoRo cargo.

 The Ro Ro cargo included the usual array of agricultural. construction and mining machinery and numerous tarp-top wooden crates with unknown contents.

 A feature of the ship that I did not see previously was the side ramp. Many newer auto carriers do not have a side ramp as they are seldom used. 

#3 At PSA Atlantic Hub yesterday, December 4, there was a first time caller on MSC's Canada Express from northern Europe. It was a relatively small ship, but even so it offloaded cargo to reduce draft for its next destination of Montreal. Unfortunately my timing was off for a clear shot before it tied up at Pier 42. [So far at least my super powers do not included being in two places at once.]

 The MSC Yang R seems to be an exception to MSC's naming schemes (female names or geographic locations, often with a Roman numeral indicating TEU capacity).

The ship was built in 2002 by Samsung Geoje and at 40.085 gt, 51,050 dwt it has a capacity of 3739 TEU and 800 reefer plugs. Its recent naming history perhaps gives a source for its current name.  Built as the Cap San Rafael (a Hamburg-Sud name) it was renamed Cape Doukato in 2012. In 2017 it became Doukato (presumably on completion of a ten year charter and five year extension) and in 2018 it became the Chinese owned Xin Feng Yang Zi Jia. It carried that name until 2021 when it was briefly renamed XingFengYangZiJiang sometimes reported as a single word. [The reliability of this info may be questionable -  sources vary.]

MSC acquired the ship later in 2021 and shortened the name to the more manageable one it has now. 

MSC's schedule shows the ship sailing from Montreal December 9 for Sines, Vigo, Gijon, Bilbao, Felixstowe, Antwerp and arriving on December 29 in Le Havre.

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Brands Hatch for Autoport

 

Zodiac Maritime continues to expand its auto carrier fleet, naming it new ships after race courses. Today, December 3, the latest arrival in Halifax is the newly built Brands Hatch.

 

Named for the British race course which is located in a naturally shaped amphitheater, and derives its name from a Gaelic term for a wooded slope (or so it is said). It is well known in world racing circles and has hosted the British Grand Prix and other notable car and motorcycle races.

Zodiac Maritime is based in London and has a large fleet of about 200 ships of all types - predominantly container ships. 

The Brands Hatch was built by Yantai CMC Raffles Shipyard and delivered in March of this year. It is a 69,250 gt, 19,160 dwt ship with a carrying capacity of 7,000 CEU. It is also fueled by LNG.

 The ship arrived from the usual European ports on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Atlantic service and after discharging cars at Autoport will move to Pier 9C to offload RoRo cargo.

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Done -loaded pellets

 The Polish ship Szare Szeregi completed loading its cargo of wood pellets and sailed this afternoon, December 2, bound for Liverpool, UK.

Initially I was sure the ship was loading wood pellets from the Halifax Grain Elevators facility. The ship arrived November 25 and after a few delays due to rain - the cargo must be kept dry - loading proceeded. (See previous post November 27.)

Then on November 28 I saw the largest gathering of pigeons that  I have ever seen. Hundreds of the birds gathered in the area of the grain elevator I was than convinced that they could only be interested in spilled grain,

Many of the pigeons gathered on one roof area but others perched on other structures in the facility. I must now concluded that their convention was only coincidental to the ship loading wood pellets.

 The ship sailed this afternoon, just a light rain shower set in and my camera decided to focus on the rain drops.

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Marine Atlantic - going shopping

 The Halifax Chronicle Herald newspaper reported on November 30 that Marine Atlantic is looking for a ship to replace the Leif Ericson in 2026.  

The oldest ship in the fleet*, the Leif Ericson was built in 1991 by Fosen Mekaniske Verksteder as the Stena Challenger for the Dover / Calais route across the English Channel. Marine Atlantic bought the ship from Stena Line of Sweden in 2000. They renamed it Leif Ericson in 2001 when it entered service between North Sydney, NS and Port aux Basques, NL.

The 18,523 gt, 4598 dwt ship is rated for 500 passengers, but is used almost exclusively for commercial vehicles and their drivers and drop trailers. With 1550 lane meters of vehicle deck it can carry 300 vehicles. It can be used for cars and passengers in case one of the other ships is out of service.

Marine Atlantic has a long standing relationship with Stena AB (and CN Marine before that) and has leased and purchased numerous ships from them, so they may well turn to them again.  

 There is even less need for passenger capacity now that Marine Atlantic added the Ala'suinu in 2024 with a capacity for 1,000 passengers, 470 cars and 120 trucks. It is therefore likely that the Leif Ericson replacement will be a similar RoRo freighter with limited accommodation.

* Footnote:

In addition to the ships mentioned CN Marine also operates the Blue Puttees ex Stena Trader and the Highlanders ex Stena Traveller on the North Sydney / Port aux Basques route. Built in 2006 and 2007 respectively, they were leased and extensively modified for the service in 2011. Marine Atlantic purchased the ships in 2015.

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Steel Import

 

Most import cargoes to Halifax come in containers, but the few that arrive regularly in breakbulk form are steel rails from Poland or nickel sulfides from Cuba. Aircraft components now arrive from Belfast, Northern Ireland on a regular basis too (they used to some as RoRo).

Last night's arrival is therefore an interesting variation - the bulk carrier Lake St.Clair from Vlissingen, Netherlands tied up at Pier 9C. Today (November 29) it began to off load a consignment of reinforcing rod (commonly called rebar). The material is shipped loose in (mostly) 40 foot lengths.

 The Lake St.Clair was built in 2005 by Wenchong Shipyard in Guangzhou as the Lake St.Clair but was renamed Federal Miramichi on  delivery to take up a charter to Fednav. In 2016, after ten years, it reverted to Lake St.Clair. It had been a regular on the Fednav's Europe / Great Lakes route and may have been chartered back as it continued to make regular trips to the Lakes. The 18,825 gt, 27,781 dwt ship is fitted with three 30 tonne SWL cranes and has five holds with one moveable bulkhead.

This year, after a stop to unload in Sorel April 17 to 23, the ship made its way up the St.Lawrence Seaway with stops to unload more cargo at Côte-Sainte-Catherine and Oshawa. It then proceeded in ballast to Thunder Bay where it languished at anchor from May 5 to 19 before loading export grain. It was reported outbound from the Seaway May 24 and may have stopped in Montreal.

It was back in Montreal August 27 and Sorel September 2 to 4 but headed again for Europe - likely with grain. It called in Savona and Torre Annunciata in Italy then headed for Arzew, Algeria. It next called in Gent, Belgium, Terneuzen, Netherlands and Wismar, Germany before reaching Vlissingen (Flushing) November 16.

Unloading the loose rebar, the ship uses its own cranes with spreader bars to land the material on the pier. It is them moved by forklifts (still sometimes called "towmotors" - once a brand name) and stacked in bundles with wood "stickers" for easier truck loading. One forklift  used slings and another used a custom spreader that may have come with the ship.

 

The ship is due to sail this evening. So far no destination has been published officially but one source does say Altamira, Mexico.

To save the longshore workers from a long trip on foot from the dock, up the gangway and down ladders to the hold, there is a faster way:

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ZIM

 One of the steadiest and longstanding shipping lines to call in Halifax is ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. As of this week it added a third service to the port - namely the ZCI  - see November 25 - Part 2. Normally a stand alone company, ZIM belongs to  none of the shipping alliances, however it has now joined with  CMA CGM, COSCO, ONE, OOCL, and Yang Ming to provide additional capacity on the busy a Mediterranean- North America traffic lane.

ZIM already has its weekly ZCA (ZIM Container Service Atlantic) Mediterranean - North Atlantic run with an eight ship rotation but the new ZCI serves several Italian ports that the ZCA does not cover. A third route is he ZCX - Colibri Express -connecting the west coast of South America and the Kingston Jamaica hub with New York and Halifax weekly, with a five ship roster.

Today, November 28, the ZCA arrival was the ZIM Pacific a product of the Hyundai Ulsan shipyard in 2009. It is a 41,358 gt, 51,701 dwt ship with a capacity of 4255 TEU (3480 TEU at 14 tonnes) and has 165 reefer plugs. 

 The ship was built as the Shuaiba but was renamed UASC Shuaiba on delivery. In 2013 it was re named CPO Savannah and in 2018 it became Harpy Hunter. In 2020 it was taken on by ZIM and renamed ZIM Pacific.

ZIM also has a longstanding slot charter arrangement with Hapag-Lloyd on the ZCA route and a few H-L orange boxes can be seen peeking out from the stacks.

 It is difficult to trace the ship's current ownership, but it is likely a charter, instead of an owned ship, as no one has taken the trouble to apply any company funnel marking. If that is the case, the ship may be due for another change since charters are usually made on five year intervals.

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POL

 Ships of the Polish Steamship Line (Polski Zegluga Morska), known as POLSTEAM, can be seen in many St.Lawrence River and Great Lakes ports, but are rare callers in Halifax. Their ship, usually handy size bulk carriers arriving from European ports with steel and loading grain outbound. Last evening, November 26, saw the arrival of the Szare Szeregi at Pier 28.

 Regrettably ships at that pier are barely visible from shore and virtually unphotographable, so they best I could do shows the ship's bow, with hatch covers open. 

Blue hull paint is not typical of POL ships - they are usually black. The blue on this ship has applied within the past year - it was originally black. Such a move may indicate a sale and lease back. Current owners are listed as Jupiter Three Shipping Ltd, based in Cyprus.

The ship was built in 2017 by Yangfan Zhoushan to the Deltamarin 37 design.It is therefore a 25,278 gt ship with a deadweight ranging from 368,520 to 39,072. It carries four cranes with capacity of 30 tonnes. 

Polsteam has a fleet of more than fifty ships. with about seventeen of Lakermax size designed for transiting the St. Lawrence Seaway locks and with shallow draft / high deadweight. As with most ships of the type it is "open hatch" (that is double hull, with hatches the full width of the holds and thus no understow.

The ship's recent movements have seen the ship calling  in Baltimore September 1-6, Savannah September 10-13, River Tyne September 30 to October 7, Wismar October 10-15, Sparrow's Point November 12-13, Wilmington November 17-19, and Cape Canaveral November 20-21. Today's load, which appears to be wood pellets, is thus a change from the usual steel products.

There is always the hope that the ship will sail in daylight, and that a better photo will be possible. 

I have previously covered the interesting history of Polish shipping in Halifax, March 10, 2023.

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