More Cars and more Fuel

 With spring comes a surge in demand for new cars, and so Autoport has been particularly busy with spring arrivals. To fuel those cars (with summer gasoline formulations) the petroleum companies have also been stocking up.

Over the past few days there have been two ships at Autoport - both familiar ones - with batches of new European cars.

On Saturday May 4 it was Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Don Pasquale from the usual European load ports of Bremerhaven, Goteborg and Southampton.(Skipping Zeebrugge this time.)

The ship was built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in Okpo in 1997 and in 2007 it was lengthened from 219.3 to 227.9 m by Hyundai Vinaship in Vietnam. The reworked ship now registers 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt with a capacity of 7,194 cars. It sailed for New York.

Today, May 5, it was the SFL Composer in from Bremen (the Volkswagen export facility) with a consignment of VWs, Audis and Porsches. The ship is under charter to VW until the First Quarter of 2027.

It is a 58,631 gt, 18,881 dwt ship with a capacity of 6500 CEU. Built in 2005 by Minami Nippon in Shitanoe, it was originally the Excellent Ace becoming Glovis Composer in 2012 and SFL Composer in 2020.

SFL Composer will remain in port over night and is due to sail late tomorrow afternoon.

On the fuel side of things, Irving Oil has been busy.

On Tuesday May 2 there was an unusual caller, Irving Oil's charter tanker Great Eastern arriving from Amsterdam. 

The Marshall Islands flag ship normally operates between Saint John, NB and US east coast ports, and is rarely seen in Halifax. As a foreign flagged ship it is not permitted to trade between Canadian ports. It also rarely sails to Europe, and this appears to be a "one of" voyage. Irving Oil regualry imports refined product from its storage termainl in Amsterdam, but usually with spot charter ships.

Built in 2005 by Hyundai, Ulsan Great Eastern is a MidRange type tanker of 23,552 gt, 37,515 dwt and is one of five sister tankers operating under long term charter to Irving Oil. Two of the ships, the Acadian and the East Coast (ex Nor-Easter) fly the Canadian flag and serve primarily Atlantic Canada ports, but sometimes reach as far west as Quebec City and Montreal. The Great Eastern and New England, which were joined in 2014 by a second Nor'Easter (the former Iver Progess, built in 2007), run usually to such ports as Portland and Boston.

All of the ships were retrofitted with exhaust gas scrubber systems (housed in a large white structure abaft the funnel).

On arrival Great Eastern anchored in the harbour until the East Coast had arrived May 3 and completed unloading and vacated the Woodside terminal berth May 4. It is rare to see two Irving Oil tankers in port at the same time. The domestic ship was given priority due to shorter terminal time, and "just in time" scheduling.

Irving Oil has committed to a charter with Algoma Central Corporation for two new 37,000 dwt ice class tankers to be built by Hyundai Mipo in Ulsan. The state of the art ships will be ethanol fuel ready and will have numerous other up-to-date features. Delivery is anticipated during the First Quarter of 2025. The ships will be Canadian flagged but will be suitable for trading to the usual US ports,  particularly Boston, which has a beam restriction of 27.4 meters (90 feet) at the Chelsea Street lift bridge on Chelsea Creek to reach Irving Oil's terminal in Revere, MA. 

Disposition of the other tankers, all but one of which will have reached the twenty-year mark next year, remains to be seen.

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Cars and More Cars

 Autoport has hosted ships for two days in a row and expects another tomorrow. The inventory of cars at the facility has appeared thin lately, so this will allow them to build up their inventory of imports. Autoport is owned by CNRail and customarily holds cars and light trucks in storage until they are called for by dealers, then sends them out by truck or train. CN also owns at least one of the large truck companies that specializes in auto transport.

Yesterday, January 17 it was the 7,194 CEU Don Pasquale, a regular caller on Wallenius Wilhelmsen's transatlantic loop. It called here in June, August and October of 2023. When it completed offloading at Autoport yesterday and was moving to Pier 9C to offload RoRo cargo, the next auto carrier, Lake Wanaka was making its way inbound.

 Don Pasquale (left) exits Eastern Passage with Lake Wanaka taking a wide turn round Ives Knoll off PSA Halifax.

Lake Wanaka. a smaller ship with a capacity of 4902 CEU has also been here before, most recently in March and August 2023, and is apparently dedicated to carrying Volkswagen products, loaded in Emden, Germany. The ship remained alongside Autoport over night and sailed late this morning heading for Jacksonville, FL.

A third auto carrier, the 6500 CEU SFL Composer is drifting offshore and is due tomorrow, January 19. It is also arriving from Emden, Volkswagen's export port.

European auto makers are experiencing production problems due to parts shortages from Asia. Some manufacturers have shut down completely as shipments through the Red Sea / Suez route have been delayed or curtailed due to the hostilities. It is therefore inevitable that there will be noticeable shortages of some kinds of cars in North America.

China on the other hand is building new auto carrying ships as it shifts to building entire automobiles. For example Ford is building some new Lincoln models in China for the North American market. With assembly closer to the component manufacturers some of the recent "supply chain" issues may be resolved. 

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Narrows News and other notes

There were four ships responsible for six transits of the Narrows today (October 20). The CSL Tacoma counts for two of those transits, arriving in the wee hours of the morning to load at Gold Bond Gypsum, and is due to sail at 2000 hrs this evening.  The Oceanex Sanderling sailing at 1800 hrs from Fairview Cove on its weekly run to St.John's, NL counts for another transit.

The container ship NYK Meteor arrived  in the morning on THE Alliance's AL5 service, heading for PSA Fairview Cove.

Another of the NYK Daedalus class, it was built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan. A 55,534 gt, 65,935 dwt ship it has a capacity of 4922 TEU. I expected the ship to sail late this afternoon, but it now has a pilot order for 0030 hrs tomorrow, so will only count once on today's tally.

The ship was very lightly loaded, which became even more obvious when it was visible broadside. It is to be expected as the ship is eastbound, with its last port indicated as Cartagena, Colombia after its west coast port calls and Panama Canal transit.

Following soon after was the autocarrier Don Pasquale from Goteborg, Sweden on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean transatlantic RoRo service. It sailed through the Narrows, turned in Bedford Basin then re-entered the Narrows to tie up starboard side to at Pier 9C. There were several opportunities for photos, but I will only show two - one from each side:

Daewoo Heavy Industry built the ship at the Okpo shipyard in 1997 and it was lengthened 28.7m (94.16 ft) in 2007 at the Hyundai Vinashin shipyard in Ninh Hoa, Vietnam. The revised tonnages are 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt with a capacity of 7,194 RT43 size cars. The ship retained its 120 tonne capacity stern ramp and small side ramp. The ship unloaded only a few pieces of mobile of mining and construction equipment at Pier 9C, then moved to Autoport to off load cars.

Other Notes:

The tanker High Wind sailed from anchorage giving a destination of Quebec City. It had arrived October18 from Port Arthur, TX and docked at Irving Oil's Woodside Terminal.

Built in 2017 by Hyundai Vinashin Shipyard Co in Ninh Hoa, Vietnam it is a 29,957 gt, 49,990 dwt chemical / product carrier owned and operated by d'Amico Tankers DAC, and arm of the Italy based d'Amico Group. After discharging some product the ship moved out to anchor in the lower harbour yesterday (October 19).

Irving Oil usually services its terminals using its own (chartered) tankers, but I suspect in this instance it is importing product from Texas because its own refinery in Saint John, NB is undergoing a "turn around" (maintenanace upgrade). The High Wind will likely be going to Irving's terminal in the Beauport area of Quebec Harbour.
 
Another rare caller, Rossi A. Desgagnés, arrived October 19 from Saint John (which must have some product in storage) and docked at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal, recently vacated by the High Wind. It is due to sail this evening (October 20). 

(File photo from 2023-03-16)

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More variety

 There was more variety in harbour traffic again today, August 3. 

A late morning arrival was the medium endurance USCGC Forward WMEC 911 out of Portsmouth, Virginia. 

It is a Hero class vessel, named for a former Secretary of Treasury 1841-1843, Walter Forward, whose "hero" status is at best questionable. Built by the Robert Derektor Shipyard Inc in Middletown, RI it was completed in 1989 and commissioned August 4, 1990. It appears that it will be observing that anniversary here along with the other Dockyard visitor FS Garonne (see yesterday's post), both of which will be in port for long-weekend holiday celebrations.

Traditionally the founding of Halifax - its Natal Day - was celebrated on June 21, even though the first 2,500 British colonial settlers arrived starting July 2, 1749. In recent years however the first Monday in August has been a civic holiday observed province-wide and not just in the former City of Halifax (which is now part of the Halifax Regional Municipality, formed in 1996 from four different municipalities, each with its own founding date.) Parades, fireworks, road races and other events coincide with the annual busker festival for an extended long weekend of celebration.

As Forward sailed it met the outbound HMCS Windsor which has been seen about the harbour and area in recent days, sometimes exercising with a helicopter.

HMCS Windsor in the Narrows, July 31.

An early morning arrival was the auto carrier Don Pasquale a regular at Autoport on Wallenius Wilhelmsen's transatlantic service. Late in the afternoon it shifted to Richmond Terminals, Pier 9C as it has done several times recently, to unload additional RoRo cargo.

As usual the ship went to Bedford Basin, turned and re-entered the Narrows to tie up starboard side to the dock. The Don Pasquale was built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in Okpo in 1997 and in 2007 it was lengthened from 219.3 to 227.9 m by Hyundai Vinaship in Vietnam. The reworked ship now registers 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt with a capacity of 7,194 cars. Its stern ramp is rated for 125 tonnes.

The heavy lift ship Pijlgracht completed its work at the IEL dock this morning and sailed in the early afternoon for Providence, RI. That port is not far from the Vineyard Wind project, so perhaps it has more cargo for that project, in additon to what it unloaded here.

 

 

A late afternoon arrival was the NYK Constellation on THE Alliance's AL5 route from North Europe to North America. 

 The 55,534 gt, 65,919 dwt ship was built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan and has a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. It was certainly carrying a large number of reefers aft (likely empty). It berthed at PSA Fairview Cove.

A ship meeting, which would be interesting to see, was to take place in the late evening and after dark. The outbound ONE Falcon would meet the inbound ONE Apus outside the pilotage area in different traffic lanes where there is lots of sea room.  It is rare that two of the 14,000 TEU sister ships would be in the area at the same time. Normal schedules would have them several days apart.

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Don Pasquale and Where's Waldo (Roseway)

 The auto carrier Don Pasquale completed offloading its large consignment of machinery at Pier 9C yesterday (see previous post) and remained alongside the pier until this afternoon (June 20) when it moved to Autoport to offload cars. (I suspect that the Autoport workers needed to clear space from yesterday's arrival of Siem Cicero before they could accommodate more cars. Recent arrivals are parked near the dock so as to offload ships quickly. They are later moved to long term storage or prep areas farther way. )

Ships calling at Autoport use a line boat to run headlines out to a mooring buoy. The long time line boat is the tug Roseway owned by Dominion Diving. It sets out from its base in Dartmouth Cove and proceeds to Autoport to await the arrival of every ship. It also attends departing ships by letting the headlines go from the buoy. 

Although it is a small vessel, the Roseway has a distinctive "sound signature" and can be heard all around the harbour when it is underway. Due to its small size however, it is difficult to see from the Halifax side. Thus there ensues the "Where's Waldo" type of game: "Spot the Roseway".

Today was no exception as the Don Pasquale made its way, it did take me a few minutes to pick out the Roseway even though I could hear it very well.

Can you see it? The Roseway is southbound just passing the GPO Sapphire at the IEL dock, and shows up just between "GPO" and "Sapphire" lettering towards the ship's stern.

This is what it looks like closer up:

Built in 1960 by Steel and Engine Products Ltd in Liverpool, NS, the tug was owned by the federal Department of Public Works and attended a small dredge and dump scows working in small ports around the Atlantic coast. Dominion Diving has owned it since 1989.

It has been pictured many times in Shipfax and companion blog Tugfax over the years. Just enter the name "Roseway" in the search boxes of each blog for much, much more...

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Variety

 Monday June 19 was a busy day in Halifax Harbour. Two auto carriers, four ships carrying containers and one tanker made for an interesting variety. 

The first autocarrier was Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Don Pasquale which went directly to Pier 9C to offload the usual variety of forestry, farming snd construction machinery. There f=were also a few shrink wrapped boats and other unidentified material.

Its last port was Southampton, and predictably JCB backhoes were among the vehicles. Built in 1997 by Daewoo, Okpo, the Don Pasquale was lengthened 8.6 meters in 2007 and now measures 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt, with a capacity of 7,194 cars.

The second auto carrier was the SIEM Cicero which went to Autoport to offload. Its last port was Emden, so no doubt the initials VW were prominent.

SIEM Cicero dates from 2017 and the Uljanik Shipyard in Pula, Croatia. A 56,677 gt, 17,416 dwt ship, it has a capacity of 7000 cars. It is equipped with a 100 tonne SWL capacity stern ramp and a 15 tonne SWL capacity starboard side ramp.

 

The container ship Tropic Lissette arrived yesterday afternoon and was due to sail at 1700 today, and was still unloading at Pier 42 mid-afternoon. As usual it is contributing lots of temperature controlled containers to the mix of boxes on the pier.

 

This morning's arrival was MSC Apollo a first time caller on its way from the US East Coast ports of Savannah (June 11-12), Baltimore (June 8-9), Norfolk (June 6-7), New York (June 3-5) and prior to that Caucedo, Dominican Republic (May 27). It is serving MSC's Indusa route and will be sailing for India via the Suez Canal.

The MSC Apollo was built by IHI, Kure in 2002 as NYK Apollo. The 75,484 gt, 81,171 dwt ship has a capacity of 6492 TEU including 450 reefers. It was renamed in 2019. 

In the afternoon it was the Atlantic Sun inbound for PSA Fairview Cove and ONE Blue Jay for PSA Atlantic Hub.

 The Atlantic Sun is westbound from Liverpool and has container and RoRo cargo.

 

ONE Blue Jay is on the eastbound leg of its voyage. It called in Halifax west bound on THE Alliance's EC5 service on May 29. It was the third ONE "bird" class ship to call here. Over night last night the fourth ship of the class, ONE Crane made a call - arriving and sailing in the dark.

 There was an interesting tanker at Irving Oil. The Alkea arrived yesterday from Amsterdam with a cargo of refined products. The ship's distinctive colour scheme of black hull and burnt orange superstructure is a carry over from its original owners Torm A/S. The ship was built as Torm Gyda in 2009 by Hyundai Mipo in Ulsan. 

A 23,332 gt, 36,207 dwt ship, it was acquired by current owners Chandris Hellas and renamed in 2022. They have repainted the funnel with the well known Chandris "X" (the Greek letter "Chi"), but the orange house would be  much more difficult to cover with one coat of paint, so may have to wait a while.

It is not often that three container ships can be captured in one photo, but that was possible in the mid-afternoon as the MSC Apollo was outbound and Atlantic Sun and ONE Blue Jay were inbound.

The carefully orchestrated timing also involved several tugs. One was escorting the outbound then joined the others to assist the inbounds.

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Fog Season

 With the arrival of spring comes fog. Although it is a major annoyance for photographers, it is only a minor hindrance to shipping, which carries on with due caution.

Today's (March 18) blanket of fog lifted in the afternoon, and despite off and on showers, it became possible to see some shipping.

Yesterday the tanker British Engineer arrived off Halifax and anchored for a time. The launch Eastcom appeared to have rendez-voused with the ship while at anchor - perhaps with a technician. Later in the evening the ship made its way to an anchorage in the main harbour, where it was shrouded in fog for the early part of the day today.

The ship made a gloomy sight if it was visible at all.

(In fact the camera saw more than the human eye in this case.)

 By mid-afternoon the fog had retreated and the ship became visible from the Halifax shore.

Passengers on the ferry Rita Joe got a very good look at the ship en route from Dartmouth to Halifax.

The Mid Range type tanker of 30,948 gt, 45,999 dwt was built in 2017 by Hyundai Mipo, and as with all British Petroleum Tankers it has superior accommodation and always looks smart with its traditional funnel marking. 

[Who first thought of painting what was essentially an exhaust pipe, in  company colours ?]

Fog lingered over the Halifax side of the harbour.

The British Engineer has a cargo of refined petroleum products from Amsterdam and will move alongside Irving Oil's Woodside terminal on departure of their tanker Acadian.

Meanwhile the Rossi A. Desgagnés (see yesterday's post) completed unloading at Imperial Oil and sailed for Saint John seemingly for another load.

At Pier 9C the early morning arrival of the Don Pasquale was also fog covered, but the ship became visible once it was alongside.

It was carrying a huge consignment of RoRos, with machinery from red, yellow and green manufacturers. The ship is expected to move to Autoport tomorrow to off load cars.

 The Don Pasquale was built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in Okpo in 1997 and in 2007 it was lengthened from 219.3 to 227.9 m by Hyundai Vinaship in Vietnam. The reworked ship now registers 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt with a capacity of 7,194 cars.

At the southend, PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway welcomed the "Ultra" size CMA CGM Amerigo Vespucci . Altough somewhat smaller than the largest container ships to call in Halifax, it was nevertheless an impressive sight as it made its way inbound with the assistance of three tugs.

 

 A group of wintering mallards were a tough audience and not easily impressed.

At 151,446 gt, 165,171 dwt, the ship is rated for 13,880 TEU including 800 reefers. Daewoo Shipbuidlng + Marine Engineering Co Ltd built the ship in 2010 at their Okpo yard.

At Pier 27 the Onego Deusto (see previous post) continued to unload rail - one piece at a time. The photo shows a large forklift carrying a single rail. A shore side crane removes the rails from the ship  (also one at a time) and a forklift moves the item to the carefully stacked stockpile. 

Foreground in the photo is a weigh scale for trucks that are bringing in material to fill the area at Pier 33-37. The pile of crushed stone to the right is for backfilling around the foundations for a new PSA  maintenance facility that will block this view.

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Don Pasquale - first photo

 Another first photo today, this time the auto carrier Don Pasquale. It is surprising that I had not photographed a ship that has been around since 1997, but it most likely was assigned to other routes. Some sources indicate that it has been on charter to EUKOR [EUrope KOrea]. Certainly sister ship Don Carlos  and Don Quijote have called here.

Don Pasquale rounding Indian Point, entering Eastern Passage. Of f the ship's stern is the small tug Roseway that handles ships' lines at Autoport, where the bow lines are secured to a buoy.

Don Pasquale was built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in Okpo in 1997 and in 2007 it was lengthened from 219.3 to 227.9 m by Hyundai Vinaship in Vietnam. The reworked ship now registers 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt with a capacity of 7,194 cars.

Rounding Ives Knoll outbound, the ship shows off its side ramp.

According to copmany literature, the ship has 13 decks. The 125 tonne capacity stern ramp serves deck 6, and the side ramp is served by deck 7. Decks 5, 7 and 9 have liftable sections to accommodate large cargo.

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