Clear up then close in

Following a storm with very high winds last night, things began to clear up and calm down this morning, March 16, allowing most lingering ships to resume their interupted voyages, and a return to normal arrivals and departures. However by late afternoon things began to close in again with fog, strong gusts and periods of rain.

One of the two MSC ships anchored in Bedford Basin, the MSC Brianna moved in to PSA Fairview Cove this morning and completed shedding weight to reach St.Lawrence River draft. With the ships Oceanex Sanderling and Tropic Lisette at the Southend terminal, PSA opted to send the ship to Fairview to unload. Once the operation was completed the MSC Brianna sailed in the early afternoon, leaving fleetmate MSC Rosella at anchor. (It has no ETD yet, but is due in Barcelona March 22.)

As the ship moved past my position I noted some interesting features:

When the ship was built in 1996 by Daewoo, Okpo it was equipped with Japanese style radio masts at each bridge wing. In those days ships carried morse code marine radio, and a radio operator. That type of communication was on the way out by then, and the last official broadcast was in 1999. But even in 1996 few ships still carried it. Although the aerial wires that were slung between the towers have been removed, the towers remain as supports for lighting and some wires and wire stays remain.

A more modern touch is the exhaust gas scrubber system retrofitted to the ship , and highly visible as a large high yellow/orange box on the after deck. There is exhaust coming from the regular exhaust pipe in the ship's funnel as the ship is likely using low sulfur MDO (Marine Diesel Oil) while in port and maneuvering. Once at sea it will switch to HFO (heavy fuel oil) and the exhaust gasses will be diverted to the scrubber.

As the ship squeaks under the A. Murray MacKay bridge, it gives bridge users a smoke bath.

A delayed arrival due to weather was the coastal tanker Algotitan. Since acquired by Algoma late last year, the former Chantaco was renamed and brought under Canadian flag January 11. It has now settled in to regular coastal voyages between Imperial Oil's Halifax depot, and Sydney, NS, CornerBrook, NL and Sept-Iles, QC.

It must have had a fairly lumpy ride along the eastern shore last night. It arrived at the Halifax pilot station at 0800 hrs ADT this morning, but pilot boarding was put off until 1500 hrs, perhaps due to sea conditions from the lingering effects of the storm.

The autocarrier Morning Peace put off its arrival from Southampton, UK, until 1030 hrs this morning when it made for Autoport. By the time it was ready to sail at 1800 hrs rain had moved in again and it was touch and go for a photo as it passed the Mauger's Beach light outbound for Manzanillo. 

 A 2017 product of Hyundai Samho, the 66,802 gt, 22,438 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,368 (or 7,549 - take your choice, depending on the source) cars.

 

An arrival of note was the new to Halifax CMA CGM Nouga from Montreal on the joint CMA CGM/ Maersk St-Laurent 1 service  (Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Montreal, Halifax, Bremerhaven).

 

A dark and rainy arrival, but not as dark as it will be on departure at 0230 hrs.

 

CMA CGM Louga dates from 2018 when it was built by Jinhai Heavy Industry Co in Daishan County, China.The 29,316 gt, 34,694 dwt ship has a capacity of 2462 TEU and was built to the heavy 1A Baltic ice class. Until last year it was employed on a service to St.Petersburg, Russia and was expected to transit the Baltic Sea without icebreaker assistance. Its bridge wings are fully enclosed, and it no doubt has other features for winter navigation.

It is not clear if the ship will be replacing the EM Kea on the St-Laurent 1 service or if it has been added to Maersk's two ships Vayenga Maersk and Vistula Maersk to increase voyage frequency.

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Taking Shelter

 With a major Nor'easter storm on its way from New England to Nova Scotia, several container ships are remaining in the Port of Halifax, rather than risking conditions at sea, particulary in the Gulf of Maine. Container ships are vulnerable to loss of containers in severe storms, so the ships are taking a wise precaution of staying put. 

Also memories are still fresh, despite the passage of thirty years, of the loss of the Gold Bond Conveyor in just such a storm. Sailing out of Halifax for Tampa, FL with a load of gypsum, the ship went down with all thirty-three crew members on March 15, 1993.

The rare scene in Bedford Basin was two MSC ships at anchor.

 The Rockingham railyard was not the only place to see MSC containers.

MSC Rossella arrived from Montreal March 10 and moved out to anchor March 11 (see also Shipfax of March 11.) Headed for Italy and Spain on MSC's Canada Express 2 service, the ship would have to cross the storm's path while crossing the Atlantic.

It was joined at anchor by MSC Brianna which arrived yesterday March 13 from Sines, Portugal on the Canada Express 1 service, en route to Montreal. Rather than cross the storm's track somewhere in the Gulf of St.Lawrence, the ship opted to move out to anchor.  It now appears on tomorrow's (March 15) pilotage assignments to be moving to PSA Fairview Cove, instead of PSA Atlantic Gateway, to complete "decanting" of cargo to meet St.Lawrence draft restriction.

 Anchoring in the lower harbour was Eimskip's Vivienne Sheri D. which also arrived yesterday (March 13) from Iceland en route to Portland, ME. It moved out to anchor yesterday afternoon.(pictured today)

Today's arrival at the PSA Gateway, the Tropical Lissette spent the day at the pier, then in the late afternoon moved out to anchor in the lower harbour. It would not be safe to remain alongside the exposed pier face, due to swells, during a major storm.

It is scheduled to move back to the pier tomorrow to continue loading, before heading south.

 The non-container ship arrival today was the Canadian flag cement carrier NACC Argonaut from Setubal, Portugal.

The 9255 gt, 13,977 dwt sahip was built in 2003 by Kyokuyo Shipyard Corp ii  Chofu, Japan as Arklow Wave. It was acquired in 2016 by NACC Shipping Canada Ltd (the initials stand for Nova Algoma Cement Carriers) and initially renamed NACC Toronto but that was changed to the current name in 2018, presumably to honour the Canadain Football League team the Toronto Argonauts.

The ship sailed from Corner Brook, NL January 11, arriving in Setubal January 22. The mild weather in Portugal allows for painting and other work that would not be possible in Canada at this time of year. (Not to mention the few Canadian ship repair yards). On completion of the work, the ship sailed from Setubal February 19. It has apparently been creeping across the Atlantic at slow speed (perhaps on a southerly route.)

It tied up at Pier 25, I am assuming to await the opening of the St.Lawrence Seaway on March 23. 

The Gold Bond Conveyor's history has been give here before, see: September 14, 2014.

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Surprises

 Managing the ins and outs of vessel scheduling is an arcane art, mastered by a few people on computers deep in the bowels of shipping company HQs. Unlike truck or airplane scheduling everything about ship scheduling must take place in a sort of slow motion, with planning required weeks or months in advance to ensure that the right ships are in the right places at the right time to maintain schedules, and meet demand. I do not pretend to understand how all this is achieved, which may explain why there were (for me at least) two surprises this morning (June 10.)

First One

The first was what I thought was a routine sailing of the container ship MSC Brianna. A regular caller on the Canada Express 2 service from the Mediterranean, it calls in Halifax to drop off / top off containers while en route to and from Montreal. It was last here May 2, on its westbound leg when I took this picture:

 I also covered the ship's lengthy history on April 6, 2021

The ship arrived again yesterday (June 9) on the eastbound leg, which I thought meant that it would be retracing its route to Barcelona, Leghorn, Genoa and Valencia, as per the published schedule. It turns out however that those are indeed ports that the ship will be calling at, but perhaps not right away.

 As the ship disappeared from view at my vantage point (swinging a lee to disembark rhe pilot) its AIS indicated that the ship would be heading a bit farther south - for Lomé. Togo, in fact. On entering that port in MSC's interactive schedule, I find that all the eastbound Canada Express 2 ships are shown calling there in between 32 and 37 days from their sailing from Halifax. However Lomé is not shown on MSC's non-interactive schedules, and ships on the CAE2 service have been on an approximately one month rotation, which would not allow such a lengthy diversion.

Lomé is MSC's West African transshipment hub with feeders and other routes fanning out from there. So perhaps the ship will not in fact be going to Lomé, but will be transshipping some cargo in Barcelona for Lomé, but if so why would the ship's destinaiton be given as Lomé on AIS?

I am therefore somewhat mystified by this, but will hope for clarification.

Second One

 Inbound at the same time was the "odd" auto carrier San Martin. By odd I mean that is not a member of one of the regular fleets such as Wallenius Wilhelmsen, Siem, NYK or MOL. It is also somewhat smaller than the regular callers and is classed as a "Medium" sized Pure Car and Truck Carrier.

Built in 2009 by 3 Maj Brodogradiliste in Rijeka, Croatia, it measures a modest 40,619 gt, 12,244 dwt and has a capacity of 4870 CEU. Originally called Montreal it was almost immediately renamed STX Oriole, then in 2016 became Gral. San Martin. It was renamed again as recently as April 1 of this year becoming simply San Martin. [ "Gral." is the Spanish abbreviation for General, and General José de San Martin was the liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru from Spanish rule in the 1820s. Indeed the ship until recently operated to South America where the General is still a national hero.]

The San Martin arrived from Emden, and docked at Autoport, probably to unload Volkswagen products. It is likely that the sinking of the Felicity Ace on March 1 disrupted normal routines and it became necessary to find another ship. The San Martin is operated by NSC Holding of Hamburg, so may even have been contracted directly by VW to supplement the regular transatlantic auto carrier ships.

Perhaps not a major mystery but an interesting break from routine callers nonetheless.

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More Business for PSA

PSA Halifax's southend terminal, the Atlantic Hub, was busy today, May 2, with two small ships working at Pier 42 and one medium sized ship arriving for Pier 41.

 Tropic Lissette was working at Pier 42 south. Halifax is a terminal port for Tropical Shipping, so it unloads and loads a significant nimber of boxes on each trip.

 With Tropical Lissette at Pier 42 south, and Eimskip's Vivienne Sheri D at Pier 42 north, there was still room at Pier 41. And it was another ship with a female name: MSC Brianna 4168 TEU.
 

 MSC Brianna arrived from Montreal to top up to deep sea draft on MSC's Canada Express 2 service to and from Italy and Spain.

There are press reports that the Mediterrean Shipping Company, MSC, will be bringing another line to Halifax. Although no official announcement has been made, the new Mediterranean Express (MX) will originate in Turkey and Greece, and after calls in Italy, Spain and Sines, Portugal, will stop in Halifax starting May 6, en route to the US. The first ship is reported to be Seamax New Haven, 8084 TEU, which was here in March on the Indus 2 service.

According to the reports I have seen, the new service will employ ships that can use either the Atlantic Hub or Fairview Cove terminal. (In other words, 9,000 TEU or less.)

MSC will also be sending an "extra loader" ship later this week. MSC Manya, 2762 TEU, is due May 5 to pick up empties and redistribute them to "needy" ports. MSC has recently passed Maersk to claim the title of world's largest container line in terms of carrying capacity. 

MSC Santhya 3007 TEU is due tomorrow, May 3, on the Canada Express 1 service en route to Montreal. On this trip the ship is skipping Sines, Portugal and coming directly from Naples, making Halifax a true "express" port, rather than just a convenient place to reduce draft.

I can see MSC rationalizing its services through Halifax in a similar way as back logs now begin to plague US east coast ports too. The added perk is "two terminals - no waiting".

MSC's putty coloured boxes are the most common sights, but they also use red oxide coloured boxes too. I believe they are rentals, like this Florens Container Leasing box marked for MSC. Like other lines it also has reefer boxes that are generally white.

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MSC and Maersk in Halifax for now

While the giant container shipping lines MSC and Maersk vie for the title as world's largest (Maersk is maintaining its lead, but MSC is gaining fast) both are making their mark in Halifax, with MSC clearly ahead - thanks in no small part to the Port of Montreal.

Maersk has been an on and off caller in Halifax on its major routes for years, but for the past several years has been represented only by its North Atlantic service. Ships call - usually weekly - outbound from Montreal for Bremerhaven. There has been some interruption in the schedule over the winter and spring because of weather and labour issues in Montreal, with the ships skipping Halifax and heading directly back to Europe. Maersk operates the service jointly with CMA CGM. Maersk provides three ships and CMA CGM provides one in order to sustain a 28 day rotation and weekly calls.

Maersk Palermo sailed from PSA Halifax this evening on Maersk's CAE service, also known as CMA CGM's St Laurent I service. The ship gave Saint John, NB as its next port. [see below]

MSC has been a much less frequent visitor in Halifax until this year when it began to send its ships here to decant or top up on cargo due to draft restrictions on the St.Lawrence River. Today there were two MSC ships, one eastbound to Montreal and one westbound from Montreal.

MSC Annick viewed from the stern shows the large structure added to the after side of the funnel to house the exhaust gas scrubber.

MSC Annick an oft renamed veteran ship, built in 1998, and with a capacity of 3987 TEU, topped up its container load for more efficient sailing. It is en route from Montreal for Barcelona.

The even older MSC Brianna built in 1996, with six previous names, has a capacity of 4168 TEU. On arrival from Sines, Portugal it appeared to be loaded to near capacity. It will off load containers to reduce its draft before sailing to Montreal later tonight.

This perhaps symbiotic relationships between the two old rival ports of Halifax and Montreal may be about to change as both lines have lately been calling in Saint John, NB to test out that port's facilities and recently renewed connection with CP Rail. The shorter CP rail route to Montreal through the US versus CN Rail's longer all Canadian route from Halifax to Montreal (with a branch from Moncton to Saint John) is the potential drawing card for Saint John. Despite the longer steaming time, new pier facilities in Saint John will eliminate backlogs and reduce tidal factors for the New Brunswick port.

Another factor in the Halifax / Saint John / Montreal choice will be the eventual owner of the Kansas City Southern railway. Both CN and CP have bid on the line. The winner will be able to extend its North American range, thus enticing more container traffic (it is hoped).

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Tankers and Scrubbers

 Product tankers of the Medium Range size (35,000 to 55,000 deadweight tonnes) are frequent callers in Halifax as they are used to transport "clean" / refined products throughout the Atlantic Basin stretching from the US Gulf and East Coast, Canadian East Coast, and Caribbean to Europe. Therefore to see two in port at one time is not all that unusual. Today there was one such tanker at Imperial Oil and one waiting for Irving Oil.

High Trust arrived April 5 at Imperial Oil.

The ship at Imperial Oil is the familiar High Trust, a ship that was last here as recently as January 29. Built in 2016 by Hyundai Vinaship in Vietnam, it is a 29,935 gt, 49,990 dwt MR tanker operated by the Italian d'Amico group. It arrived from Antwerp with its cargo.

Awaiting its turn at the Irving Oil Woodside terminal Elka Bene arrived at an inside anchorage last evening after a period anchored outside the port.

It is a 30,770 gt, 45,467 dwt ship built by Brodosplit in Split Croatia in 2002. It was launched as Asirat, renamed Bene on delivery and renamed Elka Bene in 2004 when it took up its present charter to European Product Carriers Ltd. Its last port was Amsterdam where Irving Oil has a terminal.

A third tanker, the slightly smaller (Intermediate size) Acadian arrived at Irving Oil this afternoon from Saint John. The 23,552 gt, 37,515 dwt ship was built in 2005 by Hyundai Mipo for the long term charter to Irving Oil. Owners have been variously listed over the years, but are part of the Vroon company, based in the Netherlands. They also manage the ship through Iver Ships BV. However as an Irving Oil "company ship" it apparently had berthing priority.

Irving Oil's five tankers, all sister ships, three under Canadian flag and two trading internationally under Marshal Islands flag, are immediately recognizable by their unique hull colour (some call it "biscuit") and the prominent exhaust gas scrubber fitted abaft the original ship's funnel. The scrubbers allow the ship to burn heavy fuel which is banned from use in ships without scrubbers.

A fourth "tanker" sailing from Halifax today is also worth noting. It is the Asterix the Royal Canadian Navy's chartered supply ship.

Always an impressive sight, the ship carries fuel for Canadian naval vessels, which it took on board from Irving Oil last week. It also carries a variety of other supplies which can be transferred at sea.

Also in port today was the container ship MSC Brianna en route to Montreal. The oft renamed ship was built as far back as 1996 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, Okpo, South Korea.

It is also fitted with an exhaust gas scrubber, which was obviously in use as the ship sailed. The byproduct of the scrubbing process is water vapour, and scrubber equipped ships often leave a vapour trail reminiscent of jet aircraft. It is interesting that the owners were willing to invest in a scrubber system to get a few more years out of an older ship. (The ship is owned by NSM Brianna Shipping Co Ltd and on charter to MSC).

The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) was built on working with older and nearly obsolete ships from other companies. MSC Brianna is typical in that sense. Built originally as OOCL Germany it was renamed APL Germany in 1998, Germany in 2002, P+O Nelloyd Caribbean in 2002, Maersk Doha in 2003, MSC Columbia in 2013 and finally MSC Brianna in 2013. At 51,931 gt, 60,200 dwt it has a container capacity of 4168 TEU, and is just about maximum size for St.Lawrence service.

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