CMA CGM Montreal and MOL at ther Atlantic Hub

 1. New for CMA CGM at PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub

As reported yesterday, the joint Maersk and CMA CGM North Atlantic service CAE / St-Laurent 1 is replacing older ships with newer ones. The first of the newer ships CMA CGM Montreal, arrived today, June 1, from Montreal en route to Bremerhaven.

 

The ship greeted Halifax with a big "burp" of black smoke as it approached PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub.

 The ship was greeted with much hype when it arrived in Montreal on May 25. It was then noted that it has "better fuel efficiency" , provides "extra capacity", etc., I wonder how a 15 year old ship that is smaller than the usual ships on the route can live up to that - and who will keep score.

It was built in 2007 by the little known Naikai Zosen, Sedota, Japan as Hanjin Ningbo and became Ryujin Nakara in 2106 and Irenes Rose in 2018. In March of this year it was renamed CMA CGM Montreal. A 27,104 gt, 33,632 dwt ship it is rated at 2553 TEU including 250 reefers (considerably short of the 2800 to 3100 TEU ships it replaces.)

 The ship is actually owned by CMA CGM SA The French Line, but is managed by Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, and flies the flag of Malta.

A quick look at the ship's deck load showed one lonely CMA CGM box peaking out of one stack, but lots of Maersk and Hamburg-Sud (owned by Maersk) boxes amidst the "no-names" and rentals. The ship also showed lots of freshly painted boot topping, suggesting a light load due to the imbalance of eastbound North Atlantic cargo, and St.Lawrence River draft restrictions. Five high stacks therefore suggest lots of empties.

(In the photo above the navy tug Glenevis is scooting past on its way inbound to HMC Dockayrd, and was not involved in the arrival of this ship.)

2. Also docked at PSA Halifax, Atlantic Hub this morning was MOL Charisma on THE Alliance's EC5 service.

It was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industies Ltd in Nagasaki in 2007 and is registered at 86,692 gt, 90,390 dwt, with a capacity of 9060 TEU, including 630 reefers. Delivered as MOL Charisma it was renamed APL France from 2007 to 2010 before returning to its orginal and current name.

Ships of THE Alliance have traditionally called at Fairview Cove,  but now that PSA operates both container terminals in Halifax, the larger ships will be worked at the Atlantic Hub southend terminal. It is also expected that lines using smaller ships will eventually move to Fairview Cove.

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