Busy Day

There were several busy spots in the harbour today, starting in Eastern Passage

The Integrated Tug/Barge Leo A. McArthur / John J. Carrick arrived in the early hours to offload a cargo of asphalt from the Great Lakes for McAsphalt Industries. 

Immediately astern Oceanex Sanderling was working its cargo to/from Newfoundland, but was getting ready to move back to PSA Halifax.

While the Sanderling was crossing the harbour, the auto carrier Torrens was making its way from Pier 31 to Autoport. The tug Spitfire III appears in both photos as it crosses to meet up with the Torrens. The ship will need two tugs to turn and berth at Autoport. Atlantic Oak, was already tied on after helping to get the ship away from Pier 31.

Torrens is sporting the new Wallenius Wilhelmsen colour scheme. Built in 2004, it was until recently still in the traditional red. It has a capacity of 6,354 CEU.

In the lower harbour the tanker Elka Glory was anchored awaiting its turn at Irving Oil Woodside (on departure of Gaïa Desgagnés - see yesterday's post) after arriving from Amsterdam with refined products.

A fairly typical ship of its type, built in 2003 by Brodosplit, Croatia, it measures 27,612 gt, 44,598 dwt. It operates for European Product Carriers and wears their letter "E" on the bow and funnel. This is its second call this year, after three calls in 2019.

Also arriving at anchor, but in number one anchorage, is another bulk carrier bound for Sept-Iles, QC for iron ore. Estela Claire dates from 2017 when it was built by Tsuneishi Zhoushan, a Japanese owned shipyard in Daishan, China, near Shanghai.

The 43,062 gt,m 81,886 dwt ship will undergo inspection for Asian Gypsy Moth. The ship's last port was Aughinish, Eire, where it unloaded bauxite for that port's Rusal Alumina works. However it has presumably been in an Asian port within the last few months.

Two ships in Baltimore, MD were recently discovered to have Asian Gypsy moth larvae, which so far is unknown in the USA, so I am sure the inspection will be a thorough one. One ship was carrying aluminum from India.

There was container traffic today too, with Cerescorp handling the big and the small.

Nolhan Ava arrived on its weekly call. Primarily serving St-Pierre et Miquelon, the ship also calls in Argentia, NL with container and RoRo service, providing some level of competition with Marine Atlantic and Oceanex. There have been shipping links between Halifax and the French islands for centuries, but this is the first ship in many years to fly the Canadian flag and thus be able to carry cargo between Canadian ports also.

At the larger end of the ConRo scale (in fact sharing the title of the world's largest ConRo with its four sister ships) Atlantic Sail made its regular arrival.

With the tethered escort tug Atlantic Oak making up astern the big ship glides in west of George's Island, to avoid the major course corrections needed to steer around the anchored Estela Claire at number one anchorage.

Despite the similarity of names there is no corporate connection between Atlantic Towing Ltd and Atlantic Container Line.

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Business As Usual - so far

Commercial activity in the harbour seems to be going on as usual for the time being. With growing restrictions on optional travel, so far at least, business activity is still unrestricted.

Irving Oil completed the unloading of the tanker Elka Glory and the ship sailed for Amsterdam  this afternoon.

Operated by European Product Carriers Ltd, the 27,612 grt, 44,598 dwt ship has called here previously. It was built by Brodosplit in Split, Croatia in 2003.

While it was outbound the bulker Rila was inbound from Belledune, NB in ballast.

Owned by Navigation Maritime Bulgare (NAVIBULGAR) until 2008 the State shipping company of Bulgaria, it sails under the Maltese flag. Built by Jiangsu Hongqiang HI in Qidong in 2017, it is a 27,781 grt, 41,536 dwt vessel carrying four 30 tonne cranes.

The ship tied up at pier 28, likely for bunkers.

Later in the afternoon the autocarrier Green Bay moved from Autoport to pier 31 to unload some wheeled machinery.

The ship was built in 20007 by Toyohashi SB as Grand Winner, but renamed on delivery. With a capacity of 6400 CEU, its tonnages are registered as 59,250 grt, 18,312 dwt. It is one of four US flag car carriers operated by Waterman (part of Seacor). Because it was not built in the US it does not qualify for domestic trade under the Jones Act, however it does receive preference for US government cargoes including military.

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Another blue ship day

Blue was the prevailing colour of visiting ships today - both familiar callers.

At Irving Woodside the Elka Glory was discharging another cargo from Amsterdam. The ship was here at least three times in 2019, the last on December 24. It is a 2008 product of Brodospas, Split, Croatia and measures 27,612 gt, 44,598 dwt. Owners European Product Carriers have had several "Elka" ships here in the past year.

As soon as the ship has completed unloading Irvings' Acadian will take its place. It is due overnight and will wait its turn at anchor.


On the Columbus JAX service CMA CGM Libra is back again, and still the largest container ship yet to appear in Halifax since its first arrival just over a year ago, January 12, 2019. [see: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/01/cma-cgm-libra-biggest-yet.html  ]

The 131,332 gt, 131,292 dwt ship has a capacity of 11,388 TEU according to CMA CGM. It was built in 2009 by Hyundai Heavy Industries, Ulsan. (Other sources give it 11,200 TEU).

That record may not stand for much longer as CMA CGM T. Jefferson is due in mid-March. It has a capacity of 14,414 TEU. Built by Hyundai HI , Ulsan, in 2017 it comes in at 140,872 gt, 147,966 dwt.

Ships of its size have been calling in New York and some east coast US ports for a time, and will soon become common here as PSA Halifax completes its berth expansion and adds another long reach crane.

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Christmas Eve

As usual work in the port slows down to a complete halt for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Rather than having their ships stuck in port for two unproductive days, shipowners like to see their ships at sea. Surprisingly this year there will be a couple of ships in port. Oceanex Sanderling will be at Pier 41 and the tanker Elka Glory at Irving Oil Woodside.

Elka Glory is becoming a regular at Irving Oil after calls in April and November  - all from Amsterdam.

Several offshore suppliers remain in port too, but Atlantic Osprey was off to the Thebaud field this afternoon.

The harbour will be very quiet for a day or two with perhaps only the lobster fishers at work.

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Tankers in and out

The usual comings and goings at Irving Oil and Imperial Oil this week saw one tanker at each facility.

At Imperial Oil it was the Pro Onyx a very new ship, just delivered in September by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan. It is a chemical product tanker of the MR type, 29,655 gt and 49,999 dwt (or 49,936 according to some other sources).

Although very new it does not appear to be too different from most ships of its type, with two exceptions. One is that its funnel is offset to starboard. This may be as a result of incorporating an exhaust gas scrubber system within in the funnel casing.

Note also the traditional lifeboat placements, port and starboard with davits, instead of the stern launch type seen in recent years.

Meantime at Irving Oil Elka Glory is back with another cargo from Amsterdam (it was first here in April).

Also a MidRange product tanker, of 27,612 gt, 44,598 dwt, it was built in 2003 by Brodosplit in Croatia. It has the stern launch type lifeboat. Intended to ease launching under difficult conditions such as a list, there have been numerous accidents in training with many serious injuries. More important to crew survivability, particularly with tankers, is the enclosed lifeboat, now seen on most ships.

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Three New to Halifax - corrected: make it two

Most ships that come to Halifax these days are repeat callers. Even if it has been some time since they were here last, they are familiar to varying degrees. Today however there were three two first time callers to to see.

Arriving over night at Irving Woodside, the tanker Elka Glory is, as usual, coming from Irving Oil's bleanding terminal in Amsterdam. It was anchored off Halifax yesterday, then moved to anchor inside the harbour. It then waited  for Irving's Acadian to sail early this morning before moving alongside.

 Due to the angle of the photo, it is Imperial Oil's tanks that show in the background, even if the ship is tied up at Irving's Woodside terminal. 

The ubiquity of the Irving name however is safe, thanks to a Midland Transport truck on Pleasant Street. (Midland is owned by the other side of the Irving family from Irving Oil, namely J.D. Irving.)

Elka Glory is a member of the European Product Carriers fleet of "Elka" ships. It came from the Brodosplit shipyard in Split Croatia in 2008 and measures 27,612 gt, 44,598 dwt.

Oddly another Croatian built tanker arrived this afternoon. Brodotrogir of Trogir, built the NS Spirit in 2006.

 With tugs alongside, NS Spirit  NS Pride heads for Imperial Oil's number 4 dock.

Owned by the Russia based SCF, it is a 27,357 gt, 46,941 dwt Mid-Range type and is giving Antwerp as its last port.

Correction:
I mis-identified the ship. It is in fact NS Pride, built in 2006 by ShinA Shipbuilding Co in Tongyeong, South Korea. Its tonnages are 25,467 gt, 40,119 dwt and in fact it has been here before - 2017-05-13 for Irving Oil.

The third second "new to us" ship is  JSP Levante, owned by a German investment syndicate and registered in Antigua and Barbuda with Jebsen Shipping Partners as managers. It was built in 2006 by Kouan Shipbuilding Industry in Taizhou, China. The 9957 gt, 13,634 dwt ship is a CV1110+ type feeder container vessel with a capacity of 1118 TEU. It carries a pair of 45 tonne SWL cranes.

The tug Atlantic Oak is positioned near the ship's stern to swing it around for backing in at pier 31.

This is a new ship to Melfi Marines regular service between Europe and Cuba. It is on the return leg of the trip, and as usual the ship has a load of nickel sulfides in bags, which it will unload here. There are no containers stacked on hold number seven of the ship's eight holds, to allow the bags to be craned out.

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