American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier is an operator of nine Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) ships flying the flag of the United States. The company is part of the Norwegian Wilhelmsen Group and the ships come from the Wallenius Wilhelmsen fleet. As the ships are not built in the United States they are excluded from trade between US ports by the cabotage rules under the Jones Act. However they do employ American crews and are given preferential treatment for carrying US government (including military) cargoes internationally.The company also participates in the Vountary International Sealift Program (VISA).
Today, June 9, the ARC Commitment arrived in Halifax from Zeebrugge, Belgium, initially with vehicles for Autoport. It is expected to shift to Richmond Terminals, Pier 9C, tomorrow to off load RoRo cargo.
Getting in just ahead of the rain, the ship was met by the tugs Atlantic Bear and Atlantic Beaver.
The ARC Commitment was built in 2011 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engieering Co in Okpo. The 74,255 gt, 31,143 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,843 RT43 size cars and uses a 320 tonne capacity stern ramp. It also has a small side ramp. The ship entered service as the Tiger and was painted in the traditional Wilhelmsen red/orange hull colour.
As the Tiger the ship called on Autoport in 2018.
(There is a pile driver working on the McAsphalt jetty.)
Swedish rival Wallenius Lines joined forces with Wilhelmsen in 1999, and formed Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. The two companies kept their distinctive identities, and colour schemes, for a time, but eventually formed Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean and adopted a new common hull colour. They did maintain the individual company naming schemes: Wilhelmsen names begining with T and Wallenius using operatic names. Wallenius also uses operatic names begining with T to add to the confusion. Ships are also owned individually by the lines, not jointly.
When ARC took over the Tiger they repainted it with a blue hull and white "ARC" label, but kept the name Tiger until 2021. (It is still shown as "Tiger" in Wilhelmsen's on-line fleet list.) This suggests that the arrangement with ARC is a bareboat charter.
By December 6, 2021 the ship had been repainted, but not renamed.
The normal port rotation for ARC ships is Bremerhaven, Antwerp, Southampton, Zeebrugge, Baltimore, Brunswick, Galveston and Altamira. Halifax is apparently an optional port. By the time the ship completes offloading here, the Port of Baltimore may be completely accessible to large ships again. It is reported to be partly accessible after debris from the collapsed bridge and the damaged container ship have now been removed from the main channel.
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