That's No Lady...

 Many Mediterranean Shipping Company ships have feminine names, but the two most recent arrivals in Halifax have had geographical names instead. Yesterday it was the MSC Manzanillo and today the MSC Porto III.

The MSC Manzanillo has been here several times - previously in 2022 on the Turkey-Greece service and on April, 28, 2023 on the CANEX 2 service. On that latter visit it was eastbound and came in to top off cargo. On the current visit it is westbound on the CANEX 2 route and will drop off some cargo to meet St.Lawrence River draft restrictions. It is due in Montreal on February 13.

To quote from a previous post: "The MSC Manzanillo dates from 2005 when it was built by Hanjin Heavy Industry and Construction  - the forepart in Pusan and the stern and assembly in Ulsan. It is a 54,758 gt, 68,168 dwt ship with a capacity of 5060 TEU including 454 reefers.Delivered as Juliette Rickmers, it was immediately renamed Maersk Davao until 2012, then Juliette Rickmers again. In 2017 it was renamed MP The Gronk when acquired by Mangrove Partners. All Mangrove ships were named after New England Patriots football players - this one after the tight end Ron Gronkowski. As with other Mangrove ships it was bought for US$ 7.5mn then sold to MSC in 2021 for more than US$60 mn."

Manzanillo is an important port on Mexico's Pacific coast, and is on the same latitude as Mexico City and is the principal port for that city.

Today's arrival is named for the Portuguese port city of Porto (or Oporto) which had a longstanding connection to Newfoundland through fishing and is one of the closest European ports to Canada.

The MSC Porto III is also on the CANEX 2 service, but is now eastbound from Montreal and is here to top up cargo to the ship's ocean going draft. The ship has a lengthy history, since it is nearly twenty years of age. (It is due for its next survey in September). By a strange coincidence with yesterday's arrival it was also built in halves at different shipyards. In this case the forward section came from Aker Warnemunde in Rostock and was joined to the stern section from Aker MTW Werft in Wismar. The result is a 25,406gt, 33,829 dwt ship with a capacity of 2478 TEU including 400 reefers. It also carries three 45 tonne SWL cranes. I expect the cranes are seldom used in the current service to and from the Mediterranean.

The ship started life in September 2004 when it was delivered as the Frisia Lissabon but was immediately renamed Cabo Prior until 2006. It then became Cap Flinders until 2008 and Frisia Lissabon again for a short time until 2009; CSAV Santos until 2011 reverting to Frisia Lissabon again until 2017 then HSL Porto. As of January 1, 2023 it became MSC Porto III. (The Roman numeral III indicates that the ship's container capacity is less than 3,000 TEU. )

Ships are equipped with exhaust gas scrubbers these days unless their engines can use low sulphur fuel. MSC Porto III certainly did not appear to be employing a scrubber today, as it emitted a very oily black cloud as it approached the South End Terminal operated by PSA Halifax. 

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Another double and more RoRo

 The Mediterranean Shipping Company had two ships in Halifax today April 26 - one for each container terminal.

First in was MSC Soraya on the Turkey-Greece service - usually these ships use the PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, south end terminal, but for whatever reason the ship headed north through the Narrows and berthed at PSA Fairview Cove. Ships on this service stop in Sines, Portugal making for an unpublicized seven day transatlantic express from MSC's south Europe hub.

 The 66,399 gt, 73,262 dwt ship has a capacity of 5762 TEU. It was built in 2008 by Samsung, Geoje, South Korea. (In the Narrows it passed the auto carrier Grand Pavo at Pier 9C - see below)

The second MSC ship arrived in late afternoon at the South end terminal. MSC Manzanillo is a regular caller on the CANEX 2 service, and is arriving from Montreal to "top up" containers to ocean draft.

Built in 2005 by Hanjin Heavy Industries + Construction Co, the forepart came from the Busan yard and the after section from the Ulsan yard. It was originally named Juliette Rickmers but was renamed on delivery as Maersk Davao. In 2012 it reverted to Juliette Rickmers until 2017 when it received the charming moniker MP The Gronk. It was mercifully renamed MSC Manzanillo in 2021. [One time owner Mangrove Partners used football player nicknames for their ships, while buying low and selling high and making a tidy fortune in the process.]

The 54,758 gt, 68,168 dwt ship has a capacity of 5060 TEU including 454 reefers. The ship will be sailing for Spain and Italy.

At Pier 9C it was another large consignment of RoRo, this tme on the Grand Pavo. Built in 2005 by Toyohashi Shipbuilding in Japan, the 59,217 gt, 18,376 dwt ship has a capacity for 6400 cars. That would be significantly reduced with the large quantity of other RoRo cargo.

Some of its cargo of cars had to be off loaded temporarily before the non-car cargo could be unloaded. The latter consisted of the usual construction and agriculture machinery. The ship will move to Autoport tomorrow to unload cars, so some of the cars that were moved today will have an extra fraction of a kilometer on them when they are delievered.

 

IJzerborg for Nirint and other things

 Nirint Shipping, based in Barendrecht, Netherlands, operates a regular general cargo and container service between Rotterdam, Netherlands, Bilbao, Spain and the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curacao and Cuba and returning to Europe via Halifax. The primary cargo for Halifax is nickel sulfides from Cuba. They use up to seven different ships to maintain the service, not all of which call in Halifax on every trip.

Today's arrival (July 6) has not been one of the regulars, and I believe it is making its first call in Halifax. The IJzerborg is a multi-purpose general cargo ship of the open hatch, moveable tween decks, box shaped hold type. With a hull built in 2010 by Damen Yichang, and completed in Gorinchem, it is a 8999 gt, 12,080 dwt vessel fitted with a pair of 80 tonne capacity cranes. It is also strengthened for heavy cargoes, and containers in all holds and on all hatches. The container capacity is 686 TEU and includes 80 reefer plugs. To add to the ship's utility it can carry grain, is fitted for Great Lakes trade, has hold ventilation, dehumidification and CO2, and is Ice Class 1A Swedish/Finnish. Its tween decks are removable and can be installed as temporary bulkheads. (Sister ship IJsselborg has called in Halifax numeorus times in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2021.)

 

 

Despite today's heavy rain, the ship was seen working cargo, which I appears to be nickel sulfides in bulk bags, which protect it from weather. The doors to the Pier 27 shed were open, so I expect the bags were forklifted to the shed for storage. They will eventually be loaded on open gondola rail cars for Sherritt International's refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, AB. 

Recent work at Pier 29 (in the foreground of the photos) has involved installation of a weigh scale for dump trucks to deliver pyritic slate to be used to infill the pier A-1 / Pier B  basin. That means, at least for now, a much clearer view of proceedings at Pier 27 and 28, although there are new fences in between.

In the misty background MSC Manzanillo is in number one anchorage. After working cargo at PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub, the ship returned to anchor. (See yesterday's post.)

 The previous occupant of Pier 27-28 Tomini Ghibli (see July 1 post) completed loading and sailed last evening (July 5) for Ghent, Belgium.

Another visitor in Halifax today is the always popular Queen Mary 2. The ship's arrival and departure drew the usual crowds, despite the weather. I did not make an effort to take a photo this time because I have many pictures already, and taken in good conditions, such as:

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Scrubbers on duty

 There can be little doubt that exhaust gas scrubbers have been a boon to the shipping industry. The devices have been fitted to many ships that otherwise would not be able to operate under new emissions regulations. Those ships have engines that could not be converted to use lighter low sulphur fuels. With scrubbbers they can continue to use heavy fuel oil and the scrubber washes out sulphur and nitrous oxides and particulate matter. Of course they are delaying the inevitable need to replace the ships with more environmentally sustainable systems, but such systems are not generally available yet, and even such alternatives as LNG still involve hydrocarbons. The shipping industry has recently set a carbon neutral target date of 2050, pinning their hopes on hydrogen fuel, but also using wind and other alternative technologies.

In the meantime ships with scrubbers arrive in Halifax daily. Today's arrivals allowed for a close up view of how the systems were fitted to existing ships that had no thought given to scrubbers when built.

MSC Manzanillo arrived this morning on MSC's new Turkey and Greece route, with a stop at MSC's Sines, Portugal hub. It anchored at first for CFIA inspection for LDA moth larva. Once given clearance it moved into PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub, South End Terminal.

The pilot boat Scotia Pilot embarks a pilot to move the ship from number one anchorage. The boat is water jet propelled and makes quite a fuss in close quarter maneuvering.

 The MSC Manzanillo dates from 2005 when it was built by Hanjin Heavy Industry and Construction  - the forepart in Pusan and the stern and assembly in Ulsan. It is a 54,758 gt, 68,168 dwt ship with a capacity of 5060 TEU including 454 reefers.

Delivered as Juliette Rickmers, it was immediately renamed Maersk Davao until 2012, then Juliette Rickmers again. In 2017 it was renamed MP The Gronk when acquired by Mangrove Partners. All Mangrove ships were named after New England Patriots football players - this one after the tight end Ron Gronkowski. As with other Mangrove ships it was bought for US$ 7.5mn then sold to MSC in 2021 for more than US$60 mn. (See also Shipfax June 29 for fleet mate MSC Cancun, the former Mangrove ship MP The Brown.) 

Once alongside Pier 42, the positioning of the scrubber tower became clearer.

Some sacrifice of container stowage space appears to have been necessary to accommodate the large scrubber structure.

Early this afternoon another ship arrived with a scrubber. This time it was the Danish tanker Torm Thor arriving from China and Japan via the Panama Canal.

The MidRange tanker was built in 2015 by Sungdong Shipyard in Tongyeong, South Korea. The 29,609 gt, 49,667 dwt ship is one of more than 80 tankers owned and operated by Torm, and painted in their unique colour scheme.

The ship's scrubber has been integrated into the funnel and appears as one structure.

Unlike the Irving Oil tankers, the Torm Thor's scrubber has been painted in with the funnel colours. Irving's Acadian (in port June 26) for comparison: (you be the judge)

On sailing later this afternoon, Torm Thor gave its destination as Saglek Bay, a small port, very far north on the Labrador coast, at the head of a long inlet. It is likely it had CFIA clearance inspection while in Halifax.

 

I can't imagine what the ship will be doing there, although it may be a "jumping off point" for Greenland, which still has strong Danish connections. The ship appears to be loaded so it may be delivering fuel or even transhipping it, but it is hard to know where the cargo was loaded.

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