Slow Boat from China

 The legendary "slow boat to China" of song, will be appearing in Halifax, but in reverse, this fall. The Zhen Hua 23, a Chinese specialized heavy lift ship, is giving an ETA of November 5, having left Shanghai September 13.

The ship will be carrying two new Super Post Panamax container cranes for PSA Halifax's South End Container Terminal. The crane manufacturer, Zhenhua Port Machinery Company, provides its own transportation for the fully assembled cranes. On arrival in port, the ship is able to adjust its draft so that the cranes can be rolled ashore directly from the deck of the ship. Zhen Hua technicians also set up and commission the cranes once they are on shore, which can take several weeks.

Zhen Hua has had several ships over the years, and some of them have been to Halifax delivering previous cranes. As with those ships the expected ship Zhen Hua 23 is a converted tanker. Built in1986 by Kasado Kudamatsu as a 50,285 gt, 79,999 dwt single hull crude oil tanker, it became obsolete when double hull tankers became mandatory. The Rich Duchess as it was called, still had good machinery and sound structure, and so in 2007 it was converted with a new reinforced cargo deck and a sophisticated ballast control system to allow it to load and unload large and heavy cargoes.

Although the ship has not been in Halifax before, the company's earlier vessels were of similar appearance, and generated considerable attention when they called here.

 Zhen Hua 4 had two cranes and two Rubber Tired Gantries (RTGs) for Halifax in 2000. It also had two cranes for another port.

 

Zhen Hua 29 came to Halifax in 2020 with one crane while en route to France and Algeria with four more cranes.

The Zhen Hua 23 cleared Port Louis, Mauritius October 3 and is en route to Halifax via the Cape of Good Hope. (It is too high to pass through the Suez Canal, and is taking the westbound route to avoid a long, and potentially rough, Pacific crossing.)

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