Ijsselborg for Nirint

 Nirint Shipping, a Dutch company, trades between Europe and the Caribbean, with a link in Halifax. One service sails from Rotterdam to the Dutch Caribbean and another called the Europe-Cuba-Canada service sails from Bilbao and Rotterdam to Mariel and Moa, returning to Europe via Halifax. 

Nirint does not own its own ships, but charters ships for multi-year periods. It used to rename the ships with a "Nirint" prefix, but has not done so in recent years.

The latter of Nirint's two services carries bagged nickel sulfides from Cuba. The cargo is off loaded in Halifax and sent by rail to Fort Saskatchewan, AB for initial processing. The ore is then sent to Belgium for refining.

Today's arrival of the Dutch flagged ship Ijsselborg is unusual because the ship is normally dedicated to the Dutch Caribbean route, and thus has not called in Halifax before. However it docked at Pier 27 and appears set to offload nickel. High winds and heavy rains have apparently delayed cargo operations.

Built in 2010, its hull came from the Damen Yichang shipyard in China. It was completed and fitted out at Damen's home yard in Gorinchem, Netherlands to a Damen standard design "Combi Freighter 12000" of 8,999 gt, 12,016 dwt. A multi-purpose dry cargo ship with moveable 'tween decks it has two hatches and two box shaped holds. It is also rated as Finnish Swedish Ice Class 1A and carries two 80 tonne SWL cranes that can work in combination for 160 tonne lifts. It has a container capacity of 686 TEU with 80 reefer plugs.

The ship was built as Ijsselborg, but renamed Onego Houston for a short time in 2011 then reverted to Ijsselborg. In 2012 it was renamed Clipper Alba then in 2015 became Nordana Saran, finally settling on Ijsselborg again in 2015. Wearing the colours and name style of the large Dutch company Royal Wagenborg it is actually owned by Rederij Smith BV with commercial managment in the hands of Royal Wagenborg and in turn chartered to Nirint.

Due to inclement conditions I could not see if the ship is carrying any containers, but it does not seem likely as the nickel cargo is stowed below deck and access is needed through both hatches. According to Nirint's published schedule it is due to sail from here for Rotterdam on completion of cargo work.

Wagenborg ships are frequent callers on the Great Lakes / St.Lawrence in the forestry trade with clay for paper making and finished paper products and bulk cargoes. Their gray hulls with red stripes make them easily identifiable.

Wagenborg ships such as the Albanyborg and Amstelborg load paper at my summertime haunt of Pointe-au-Pic, QC for export to Europe.

The Albanyborg is passing Halifax tonight en route to Baie Comeau, QC, another of its favourite loading ports for paper. The Amstelborg is at anchor near Belem, Brazil.
 

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