G6 alive and well but P3 now dead

The G6 Alliance of container lines which call in Halifax, is still bringing in a variety of ships from its several partners.

Sunday's arrival was OOCL Vancouver a post-panamax type, measuring 66,462 gross tons and carrying 5885 TEUs, it has been an off and on caller here since the Alliance was formed on 2011. Built in 2006 by Koyo Dockyard Co of Mihara, Japan, it carried the name OOCL Italy from 2010 to 2013. It now flies the Panama flag and is owned by Shoei K.K of Japan and chartered back to OOCL.

Today's arrival, NYK Meteor is a first timer to Halifax.  Built in 2007 by Hyundai Heavy Industries of Ulsan, South Korea, it carries a modest 4922 TEUs on 55,534 grt. It came from HHI in 2007.

Other members of the G6, Hapag-Lloyd (now merged with CSAV), APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine, and Mitsui OSK, along with OOCL and NYK, have 29 different combined trade routes around the world.

Not so rosy is the future for the proposed P3 Alliance of the world's largest container lines Maersk (15% of world's container capacity),  MSC (13% of capacity) and CMA CGM (9%). The ship-sharing plan was developed to deal with a huge over capacity of ships, ordered during boom times and delivered during the recent slow shipping market.
Approved by US and European regulators, the P3 plan was canned by China last week, much to the surprise of the proponents. Citing the need to protect smaller lines (some of which, not coincidentally are Chinese state owned) China denied permission for the P3 to start up. The three partners have thus scrapped the idea - and will soon have to start scrapping ships.

An example of the over capacity built by the P3 proponents is CMA CGM Marco Polo, delivered in 2013 by Daewoo, Okpo, it has a container capacity of 16,020 TEU, with a grt of 175,343 tons.

I spotted the ship last week in Hamburg, with seven cranes working cargo.

Smaller lines have also over built, and they must be heaving a sigh of relief with the death of the P3, but over capacity will continue to be a problem for some time.

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APL Agate - the latest G6

The latest ship to arrive for the G6 Alliance, APL Agate tied up at Fairview Cove this morning. The ship is the second of  APL's (formerly American President Lines) five contributions to the new schedule. At 5,020 TEUs, it is not among the largest ships to call in Halifax, but it is impressively large nonetheless.
See Capt' Ken's photo on Ship's Nostalgia for a "bow on" view.http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/382833/title/apl-agate/cat/513
Built in 1997 by Samsung in Koje, South Korea, it comes in at 65,475 gross tons, and is an example of the type of ship now being displaced from former routes by even larger ships. This trickle down effect. will be exacerbated by the opening of the new Panama Canal locks next year (they are talking about even large locks already!) and by the glut of ships in the struggling container trades. Further mergers, rationalizations and scrappings will alleviate this situation somewhat. Mass scrappings are really the only solution, but then there would be a dearth of ships if the world's economy suddenly turned around. Shipping lines are therefore absorbing huge losses in hopes of recovery. Inevitably there will be some that will not be able to hold out, some lines may go under. 
The ship is expected to sail after dark tonight.

APL Cyprine first call for the G6 Alliance service

1. Escort tug Atlantic Oak straightens out APL Cyprine to pass under the A.Murray MacKay bridge.

APL Cyprine sailed today after making its first call in Halifax for the new G6 Alliance The new combination of major carriers will result in one less stop for Hapag-Lloyd's own service, but will see several new ships for H-L and APL that will be new to Halifax..
Since 1988, what was originally American President Lines, has been called APL. The ships still wear the eagle funnel of the previous company, but have adopted names from parent company NOL (Neptune Orient Line) of Singapore - most ships are named for jewels, no longer for American Presidents. Interestingly APL has a Canadian connection, going back a century with Robert Dollar, a native Scot, who lived in Canada for a time. He made his fortune in timber on the west coast and spread out into shipping. In 1925 he took over the ailing Pacific Mail Steamship Co (which named its ships after Presidents) and became a major force on the Pacific. After his death in 1932,  Dollar Lines also ran into financial difficulty, and the US government took over the company from his sons and formed American President Lines in 1938.
In 1997 APL merged with NOL, but still maintains a US flagged fleet under the APL banner.
APL Cyprine was built in 1997 by Samsung SB+HI of Geoje, South Korea, and operated as NOL Cyprine until 2000 when it was assigned to APL and now flies the US flag. It is a ship of 65,475 gross tons, but only 64,159 deadweight tonnes. Usually deadweight is a much larger number than gross, but this seems to be accounted for in the way it stows its 5200 TEUs of containers- 2544 in the holds and 2476 on deck. Usually the deck capacity is much less than the hold capacity.
Sister ships APL Pearl,  APL Agate, APL Coral and APL Belgium will also be coming to Halifax as part of the G6 service.

G6 + Z

1. Reefer containers from several lines await use at Halterm in March, Zim in the foreground.

In mid-March it was announced that the G6 Alliance of container lines would be starting six new services from Asia to the US and Canadian east coasts, three via Suez and three via Panama. As far as could be determined only one of those will be calling in Halifax, the A2X loop sailing from Laem Chebang (Thailand), Singapore, Colombo, Damietta (Egypt), Cagliari, Halifax, New York, Savannah, Norfolk, Cagliari, Damietta, Jebel Ali (Saudi Arabia), Singapore, Laem Chebang.
Details were scanty on whose ships would be running and on what type of schedule.
The US Federal Maritime Commission agreed to the six lines chartering and exchanging space on each other's ships and to co-ordinate services to the US east coast only (not the west coast). Reportedly some 50 ships are involved including six US flag ships.
G6 Alliance members are NYK Line, Hyundai Merchant Marine, OOCL, Mitsui OSK Line (MOL), Hapag-Lloyd, and APL (American President Lines, which will contribute the US flag ships.)

Today it was announced that Zim will take slots on three of the Suez routes and contribute five ships to the A2Z loop. The loop will use 10 ships altogether, in the 4500 to 5100 TEU range. Zim certainly has numerous 4500 TEU ships which already call in Halifax.  With 10 ships on the loop, there will likely be weekly service.
Since two of the G6 lines and Zim already call in Halifax, but at competing piers, it will interesting to see which of the terminals gets the new line, Halterm (Zim) or Fairview Cove (H-L, OOCL).