Hangzhou Bay - big load

 As if in defiance of my posts of the last two days*, the ONE Hangzhou Bay sailed today with a huge deck load. 

 

The ship is on the eastbound leg of its EC5 voyage for THE Alliance. It was last in Halifax March 17-18, and since then has called in New York March 20-22, Savannah March 24-26, Jacksonville March 26-27 and Norfolk March 29-30.

It should be said that even when it was here on the last trip it appeared to have an immense deck load - especially aft, and was loaded to a deeper draft. So perhaps the ship had sufficient spare capacity on this leg that it was able to be an "extra loader" or "sweeper" and pick up empties or redistribute needed boxes and to make up the lost capacity from blanked sailings by other ships.

The March 17 view of the ship from astern showed some empty bays aft and space forward.

The ship was built by IHI, Kure in 2012 as Hangzhou Bay Bridge. K-Line renamed the ship in 2021 as part of the Ocean Network Express (ONE) joint venture. Measuring 96,780 gt, 96,980 dwt, the ship has a capacity of 9120 TEU according to some sources, but others claim 8974 TEU including 800 reefer plugs.

It is possible that the ship's capacity has increased since it was built, because it has a second wheelhouse atop the orginal bridge structure, added to comply with forward visibility requirements.

 

The ship's signal masts have been struck to clear the MacKay bridge outbound. With containers stacked eight high, the ship is loaded near capacity by volume, but is not down to its draft marks, so has unused capacity by weight.

 

 

*Trade analysts report major drops in inbound container traffic to US ports for five consecutive months, culminating in a staggering 28% drop (year over year) in February. However outbound traffic has been increasing since December, with a 4.6% increase, year over year, in February.

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