Asian Emperor and Gracious Ace - two autocarriers

Autocarrier Asian Emperor has been due in Halifax for a couple of days now, but only arrived this morning. It was supposed to go to Autoport, but while inbound its destination was changed to pier 27-28. A second autocarrier, Gracious Ace, which was to have followed later in the day, instead came in and went directly to Autoport.

Word is that while crossing the Atlantic, Asian Emperor was struck by this week's major storm and sustained damage below deck when cargo broke loose. Extent of damage is still to be determined, so the ship will remain at pier 27-28 until it has been assessed and cleaned up.
Built in 1999 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea, the ship measures 55,729 grt, and can carry 6,246 cars. It is actually owned by Wilhelmsen South Korea of Pusan, and chartered to EUKOR [EURope KORea] a company set up to deliver Hyundai and Kia cars.
As with most Wallenius Wilhelmsen autocarriers, it operates in a world wide pool and carries autos from many manufacturers. A recent list of ports that it has visited included Piraeus (Jan 14), Livorno (Jan 18) Sagunto (Jan 19), Zeebrugge (Jan 29), Bremerhaven (Jan 31), Southampton (Feb 4).

Gracious Ace was built in 2012 by Imabari Shipbuilding in Marugame, Japan and measures 59,583 grt. It is operated by MOL Ship Management of Singapore, an operating arm of the Japanese company MOL. (Mitsui OSK Lines) It also has a capacity of 6200 cars.

Unlike the Wallenius ships, it is on a different sort of routing. A summary of its last ports include Australia (October), Japan (December), Boston (Dec 19), Lagos (Jan 14), and Eemshaven (Feb 2).
From this it would seem to have been a couple of days behind Asian Emperor, thus escaping the worst of the weather.

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