ZIM Asia

 ZIM (now officially known as Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd) operates two lines in and out of Halifax. A feeder service called CFX (for Canada Florida Express, but which extends as far as Kingston, Jamaica) and its ZCA service (ZIM Container Atlantic), operating from the Mediterranean to the North America east coast (Halifax, New York, Norfolk, Savannah and return). Today (October 16) the ZCA arrival was a new ship to the service, ZIM Asia.

The ship dates from 2010 when it was built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co in Okpo, measuring 42,110 gt and 54,308 dwt with a container capacity of 4300 TEU. Its size is in line with most of the ships ZIM employs on the ZCA. A few years ago it was said that ships of this size were obsolete, but that appears to have changed, at least for now, and ZIM certainly has establsihed a niche for them.

Initially named MOL Distinction, the ship was renamed in 2016 as SCT Distinction, then in 2017 as ALS Ceres before becoming ZIM Asia as of April 1, 2022.

So far the ship has not taken on any ZIM identifiers, such as funnel mark, paint colours or hull banner. That may mean that it is a short term charter. (There is lots of room on the name board for a longer name.)

The wide but shallow superstructure appears to incorporate an exhaust gas scrubber system, which would be original to when the ship was built.

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