The usual suspects

There were several arrivals, departures and moves today, April 2. All but one of which were familiar ships going about their usual business.

The only unusual move was Irving Oil's tanker Acadian moving from Irving's Woodside terminal to Esso dock 3. Imperial Oil (Esso) has recently shifted supply from their usual European source in Antwerp and has been acquiring stock from competitor Valero in Quebec (see previous post and tanker Algoterra.) They are also "importing" by rail from their own refinery in central Canada.

Irving Oil's refinery in Saint John, NB is the largest in Canada (350,000 bbls per day or more), so apparently it can produce enough fuel to supply its own needs and those of others. Although not unheard of in recent years, Irving and Esso only rarely swap product.

The relatively rare sight of an Irving tanker at Imperial Oil.

The usual Saturday arrival of a ship on the Maersk / CMA CGM transatlantic service to Montreal and Halifax was Maersk Penang.

Due to winter conditions, some Halifax calls on this service have been bypassed in recent months, with ships returning from Montreal directly to Bremerhaven. Now that conditions are better and ice is retreating in the Gulf, the ships should be able to keep their regular weekly schedule.

 

Trade to Cuba has dimished in the past few years as the country has retreated into greater poverty. One of the two shipping lines running between Europe and Cuba is Melfi Marine Corp. The company reduced its sailings through Halifax from every 12 days to once a month in May 2021, using only one ship.  That ship is X-press Irazu which arrived today and anchored. (Melfi ships often arrive on the wekend and wait until Monday to load/unload.)

The ship dates from 2007 when it was built by Guangzhou Wenchang Shipyard Co Ltd. At 18,480 gt, 23,716 dwt, it has a capacity of 1732 TEU including 379 reefers. It also carries a pair of 45 tonne capacity cranes.

The Melfi route, called MEDCAN, is westbound from Livorno, Genoa, Barcelona, Valencia, Setubal (for Lisbon), Halifax, Mariel.The ship looked very lightly loaded today.

The other typical arrival was Eimskip's Lagarfoss, which is one of three ships providing a service to the much more affluent island nation of Iceland.

The Lagarfoss was built in 2014 by Shenfei Shipbuilding Co in Rongcheng, China. With a gt of 10,119 and dwt of 11,811 it has a container capacity of 880 TEU and carries a pair of cranes.The ship is on the east bound leg of its journey and is expected to sail this evening for Argentia, NL.

 

Among today's departures was the container carrier Hyundai Force. The ship has been the subject of a couple of previous posts.

With a stiff breeze blowing in from the north off Bedford Basin, the ship used three tugs to get away from the berth at Fairview Cove. Once clear the tugs took up positions to starboard, Atlantic Fir; port, Atlantic Oak; and Atlantic Beaver as stern tethered escort.

Once across Bedford Basin, they lined up for a quick passage through the Narrows, with a tail wind.

Those bow lines in the foreground belong to the familiar cable ship IT Intrepid which arrived this morning from Sines, Portugal, and tied up at IT International Telecom's Marine Base at Pier 9B.

The Barbados flag ship is nominally based in Halifax but works world wide. The owners have been granted a temporary Admission to the Coasting Trade of Canada to install a 130 km subsea fibre cable called Sunoque II from Sept-Iles, QC to Ste-Anne des Monts, QC. The work is to take place between April 15 and 30. It will involve trenching and burying the cable with a Subsea Cable Plough. They will also use a remotely operated tracked vehicle (ROV).

 The owners have a second coasting trade license application pending for the ship to recover and reinstall 35 km of undersea cable in the La Perouse Bank area of British Columbia. The work will include burying the cable using a submarine trenching plow and underwater splicing using an ROV. The plan is to carry out the work from May 13 to 20, subject to approval of the application. (A permit may be granted by the Minister of Public Safety if no suitable Canadian vessel is available.)

IT Telcom's IT Integrity is also at the IT base. It is a Canadian flagged vessel and recently returned from work in the Rose Blanche area of Newfoundland, which is a major cable landing station.

There is a third cable ship in port. That is the Durable which arrived at Pier 27 on March 30.

 

The ship is owned by Transoceanic Cable Ship Inc and was built by Keppel Hitachi in Singapore in 2002 as the Tyco Durable. When Tyco became over extended and failed, the ship was sold and renamed in 2010. Transoceanic has a huge contract with the US Navy, signed in 2018 and extending to 2023. Presumably it involves maintaining seabed communication and monitoring systems.

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DOUBLE HEADER, TRIPLE HEADER

 Two of the facilities in Halifax harbour were busy today. Gold Bond Gypsum (formerly National Gypsum) had one ship alongside and one waiting and PSA Halifax (operators of the southend container terminal) had two ships alongside and a third waiting.

Gold Bond had been accumulating a large stockpile of material for the last several weeks:

The raw gypsum ore is transported from the open pit mine at Milford by CN rail in dedicated unit trains. Cars dump their loads in the white building at left, where the material is conveyed under ground to the large stacker/crane. It is conveyed again (white structures to left of centre) to the mobile ship loader on the pier (dark structure in centre, in front of the stacker crane).

Arriving this morning, August 29, Algoma Integrity began to load immediately, and by late afternoon had reduced the stockpile noticeably. It has raised its self-unloader boom to allow the mobile ship loader to access all the ship's hatches. The loader is at about midships position in this photo, and appears to be loading the ship from aft to forward - perhaps in one pass.

Also arriving today, Thunder Bay anchored nearby and will move in as soon as the Integrity is finished.

At PSA Halifax (formerly Halterm) there were two ships alongside. CMA CGM Andromeda is new to Halifax. A 131,332 gt, 131,236 dwt ship, it was built by Hyundai Ulsan in 2009 and has a container capacity of 11,200 TEU. It is sailing on the Columbus JAX service.

Also alongside was Maersk Penang on the east bound leg of its transatlantic regular run. Returning from Montreal its next scheduled port is Bremerhaven.

Once both ships are clear, it will be time for the long awaited Zim Yokohama to berth, now scheduled for tomorrow morning.

The ship has been in quarantine anchorage off Halifax since August 6 due to COVID cases among the crew. 

The only other commercial activity in the harbour today was at Pier 30-31 where another regular caller, Augusta Luna, was tied up.

The ship arrived yesterday with another load of nickel sulfides from Cuba. The ship sails for the Dutch company Nirint Shipping BV. Cuba's economy is in paralysis, since the shut down of tourism due to COVID. One of the country's few sources of foreign revenue is the sale of nickel - although it is believed rum is still doing well. (See the container tanks on deck forward.)

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Maersk Penang - retracing its course

 As recounted yesterday the Maersk Penang was re-routed from Montreal to Saint John, NB last week due to the longshore strike. After  unloading in Saint John, it came to Halifax, which would have been its normal stop en route back to Europe.

When it sailed this evening I was startled to see how light it was in draft, meaning that it hardly took any cargo in Halifax. I was  equally surprised to see the ship giving its destination as Saint John. It must be going there to pick up export cargo that was redirected during the strike.

Along with most other lines sailing to the St.Lawrence, its schedule and vessel rotation are now in disarray. With longshore workers legislated back to work, it will be a major task to clear backlogs and service incoming ships.

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Predominantly Blue

 Blue was the colour of choice in Halifax today, Saturday, May 1, and thereby hangs a tail or two.

The Maersk Penang arrived at PSA Halifax this morning after sitting at anchor outside the harbour since Thursday, April 29.

Due to labour disruptions in Montreal, the ship's normal westbound transatlantic route was changed when it went instead to Saint John, NB. However with export cargo waiting for it in Halifax, the ship then came here and anchored until picking up the normal scheduled sailing day - today.

In March, Maersk announced that the ship would make a trial call in Saint John, March 23, then Halifax March 26 (it did not) and Montreal March 29. If Maersk has been tempted away from Montreal by the Port of Saint John and CP Rail, then one wonders how long they will continue to call in Halifax.

Now that longshore workers have been legislated back to work in Montreal it may be a while before we see the resolution of this story. So far the next scheduled ship on the Maersk CAE service, Maersk Palermo, is south of Newfoundland en route to Montreal, more or less as per normal except about one day later than usual.

Cerescorp, Fairview Cove had its own blue ship today too. MOL Glide is here once again on THE Alliance's AL1 service. The AL1 service is due to end in 2Q 2021, but Halifax has been added to the AL5 service which has already started to call here, serviced by NYK ships.

Still wearing the MOL colours MOL Glide it has not yet been repainted in Ocean Network Express (ONE) magenta as MOL's "M" class ships have. 

No blue ships at Autoport today, but instead it was the green over grey Wallenius Wilhelmsen hull colour scheme of their merged fleets. Manon is one of the veterans of the fleet, built in 1999. It ranks as a regular caller, and was last here March 27, 2021.

There was very bright blue at HMC Dockyard as HMCS Toronto shows off its new 'boot topping". The term is an ancient nautical one denoting the paint on the portion of a ship's hull that is usually under water. The paint is also specially formulated to discourage marine growth and is described as "anti-fouling." The bright blue paint has recently been applied while the ship has been out of the water on the Syncrolift.

The Syncrolift [a registered trade mark] is an elevator platform that lifts ships out of the water by means of a couple of dozen synchronized electric winches (under the light blue hoods in the photo). The RCN's own ship repair unit, called Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Scott (FMFCS), can perform a multitude of repair and maintenance chores once the ships are "in the dry". 

The FMFCS facility recently celebrated its 25th anniversary as commemorated in the forces newspaper Trident

Of note is a current tender to remove .5 meter of toxic sludge that has built up on the harbour bottom under the platform. The project, which is expected to cost in excess of $3 million, will allow the platform to be lowered to its design depth.

The last caller was another exception, because I couldn't see a spec of blue anywhere on Alpine Madeleine arriving from Antwerp for Imperial Oil.

A typical MR tanker of 29,266 gt, 49,999 dwt, like scores of others, it was built by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan in 2008. The ship is operated by Diamond S Management LLC (hence the funnel mark), a large publicly listed tanker operator with a fleet of 64 ships, 50 of which are MR tankers like this one. Diamond S recently announced a merger with International Seaways, another NYSE listed company, with mostly crude tankers, which will make a combined fleet of 100 ships. Both companies are US based.

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Business as usual - for now

The container business is in disarray at the moment with the Suez Canal blocked by a grounded ship, and longshore labour uncertainty in Montreal. So far at least the Port of Halifax is keeping up, but that may be starting to change.

A PSA Halifax today Maersk Patras was working at Per 42. It would normally have called on Saturday, but both berths were occupied yesterday, so a one day delay is not too serious. 

The ship is on its usual eastbound run from Montreal, although there have been several missed calls over the winter. However its fleet mate Maersk Penang on its westbound run is not going to Montreal, but is instead arriving in Saint John today. It is still giving Halifax next weekend eastbound. It may be a blow to terminal operators PSA Halifax not to get all the westbound cargo, but I speculate that it might overwhelm the capacity of the terminal, what with other diversions also possible.

Also at PSA Halifax today is MSC Angela, another ship that is due to sail to Montreal, after reducing draft in Halifax by unloading some cargo. The ship has been sitting at anchor off Halifax since March 18. Perhaps waiting for developments in the Montreal situation. Fleet mate MSC Annick is standing by off Halifax.

Meanwhile at Fairview Cove ONE Magnificence is back on THE Alliance EC5 service. It is scheduled to arrive at the Suez Canal April 8, with its next port Jebel Ali on April 16. Whether the Canal will be re-opened and the traffic backlog cleared remains to be seen. There are reports that more than 300 ships are now waiting to transit, even with many diversions already sent via the Cape of Good Hope.

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Maersk Penang diversion

The container ship Maersk Penang arrived in Halifax today. The ship would normally be expected on a Saturday, arriving from Montreal and heading for Bremerhaven on Maersk's Canada Express service.

However on this trip the ship did not go to Montreal, due to a four day work stoppage called by longshoremen. The strike began Monday July 27 and presumably would have disrupted Maersk Penang's normal schedule. Instead the ship, sailing from Antwerp, went to anchor off Sheet Harbour until this morning. It will now unload completely in Halifax and await whatever cargo can be brought in from Montreal by road or rail in time to maintain the usual schedule. That would normally see the ship sailing from here on August 2.

Maersk Penang was built in 1998 as P+O Nedlloyd Jakarta by Kvaerner Warnow Werft, and measures 31,333 gt, 37,842 dwt, with a capacity of 2890 TEU including 400 reefers. It was renamed by Maersk in 2006 as part of its acquisition of P+O Nedlloyd.

Sisterships Maersk Palermo and Maersk Patras and the EM Kea maintain the weekly CAE service jointly with CMA CGM from Halifax to Bremerhavem, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Montreal. .

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boxes

Both container [pier worked two container ships today and CN Rail began to set up a display near the waterfront.

Halterm welcomed CMA CGM Elbe a 95,263 gt, 112,500 dwt ship with a stated capacity of 9365 TEU including 1458 reefers. The ship was built in 2014 by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry in China.

With a capacity similar to some of the more conventional looking CMA CGM ships, it appears much larger due to the split superstructure favoured by many of the very large 10,000 TEU plus ships.

Halterm also had the regular weekly Maersk/CMA CGM ship. Despite no call last week form sister ship Maersk Patras, today's caller Maersk Penanag appeared lightly loaded on departure.

It did however appear to have lots of empties on its after deck.

At Cerescorp MOL Partner was back (lots of pictures of it in previous posts), and a ship I had not photographed before.

Granville Bridge was built in 2006 by Hyundai, Ulsan and measures 68,570 gt and 71,326 dwt, with and can carry 5624 TEU, including 600 reefers.

The ship is still wearing the "legacy" colours of K-line. After that line, MOL and NYK merged container ship operations into Ocean Network Express (ONE) more and more of the magenta coloured containers are showing up. For now at least, only new ships are being painted in that colour.


On shore CN Rail brought in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours of its intermodal containers to the parking lot opposite pier 23. They will be assembled as part of a 100th anniversary celebration.

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The dawning of a new day

The dawn brings a new day (but shorter)

1. Every dawn brings a new crop of cruise ships at the height of the cruise season.

 Celebrity Summit, Queen Mary 2 and Zuiderdam arrive on Thursday morning.

Rotterdam overtakes Insignia on Friday. Insignia used a tug to slip into the narrow camber of pier 23.

Silver Whisper and Pearl Mist arrive this morning.

Once risen the morning sun is directly behind inbounds as the come into the port, making photos nearly impossible.

Pearl Mist recent recipient of a fine for speeding in the right whale protection area in the Gulf of St.Lawrence. So much for eco-tours!

Silver Whisper in the classic pose. Unlike most cruise ships at this time of year it sailed in daylight.

2. New era for cabotage

Maersk Penanag arrives with the first domestic / cabotage cargo under CETA. 

With the Canada Europe (Free) Trade Agreement in force, Maersk / CMA CGM can now ship empty containers from Montreal to Halifax on a foreign flag ship. They had not been allowed to do this under traditional cabotage rules, and in fact were denied coasting licenses in the past because Canadian ships could have carried the cargo. None did because the cost was prohibitive. 

The seventy empties are being repositioned to Halifax where there is more demand for seasonal eastbound reefer cargo. This saves the line the cost of shipping empties by rail. 

But the question is where will  it end?  Applications for coasting licenses are expected to dry up - there were only two in all of September and none so far this month. That compares to 11 in July and 14 in August.  

Canadian ship owners may have to flag out their fleets to survive the onslaught of foreign flag ships. 

 

3 New life for a ferry

Wave Sentinel was built in 1995 as the ferry Island Commander to run from Portsmouth, UK to Jersey in the Channel Islands. In 2000 it was converted to a cable ship.
It made a brief overnight stop in Halifax for stores and bunkers before sailing this afternoon for its home port of Portsmouth.
It was last here in September 2000, shortly after conversion. Aside from the orange paint on the visor and an additional satellite dome, it also appears to have acquired some new cable equipment.


4 New fuel for a Newyorker \

 The bulk carrier Newyork Harmony [the first name is all one word] arrived from Belledune, NB for bunkers. The crew were busy airing and cleaning the holds in preparation for its next cargo. However that cargo is as yet unknown, since on sailing this evening it gave is destination as " sea for orders".
Built in 2105 by Shin Kurushima, Toyohashi, the 24,328 grt, 38,511 dwt ship has four cranes and grabs for working cargo.


5 New light on an old bulker

Atlantic Huron - back again for a load of gypsum. Rumours of its retirement have been rife for years. Could it be a candidate for re-flagging?

6 New paint?

USCGC Harriet Lane WMEC 903 certainly did not look its age on sailing this afternoon after a courtesy call at HMC Dockyard. The cutter, commissioned June 14, 1984, is a veteran of many missions but looks like it just stepped out of the band box.
To save you looking it up (I had to) Harriet Lane was the niece of US President James Buchanan (a bachelor) and was a much acclaimed and idolized "first lady" when her uncle was a Senator, Ambassador to the Court of St.James and President (1857-1861). Uncle James however was blamed for not preventing the outbreak of the US Civil War. Harriet Lane's generosity to children's health in the Baltimore area is still recognized.

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Quebec Report #3

Sundays are often busy days on the river as ships aim to reach port on Monday. Today, despite some heavy showers, tide and time co-operated for a few photos of the dozen or so ships that passed my vantage point.

The speedy Maersk Penang overtook the slower Strandja as they made their way upriver early this afternoon.

Maersk Penang is a familiar sight in Halifax, one of five ships that maintain a Maersk CMA CGM transatlantic service.  Calling on Montreal Monday, westbound, the ships then stop in Halifax eastbound, usually on Saturday.

Strandja sails for Navigation Maritime Bulgare of Varna, Bulgaria, whose ships have been regular callers on the St.Lawrence for many years. Their tan superstructures make them easily identifiable from a distance. Launched in 2010 by Shanhaignan Shipyard in Qinhuandao, China as Eastward York, it was renamed on delivery Federal Yangtse, but almost immediately renamed Strandja.
The ship measures 19,865 grt, 29,9800 dwt and is a Seawaymax vessel.

As the showers cleared in the early evening a faint rainbow formed the background as Camilla Desgagnés passed close by upbound. The ship is returning from its first northern supply trip of the season.

A veteran of the Desgagnés fleet, the ship is the former Finnish newsprint carrier Camilla, that was salvaged off Newfoundland in 2003. Declared a total loss, Desgagnés bought the ship and installed a crane and carried out other modifications to suit it for work in the north.

The northern supply run is in full swing, with most ships back from their first trips and loading or sailed for the second. It is an especially busy year since the port of Churchill has been cut off by railway washouts and is no longer a staging point. In fact some lines are delivering cargo to Churchill for local use.

Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping, has added a fifth ship to its fleet. It was downbound this morning at the crack of dawn, too dark for a photo. Named Nunalik (meaning "community"), the ship arrived in Sorel July 30 and was registered Canadian August 4. As with the other ships in the fleet, it was acquired from Spliethof's, the Dutch carrier, which company operates the ships in the off season.
Nunalik has a somewhat different history however, as it was not for Spliethof's.
It started life in 2009 at Jiandong Shipyard in China, and was originally named Beluga Fairy, 9611 grt, 12,662 dwt and as a member of the Beluga F class, was fitted with  a pair of 180 tone cranes that can combine for extra heavy lifts. When Beluga failed the ship became HHL Amazon for Hansa Heavy Lift. In 2016 it was renamed Hemgracht by Spliethof's and used by them until needed by NEAS.

The other major northern supplier, Desgagnés has four former Beluga F class ships in its fleet, and has found them especially useful for their heavy lift capability.

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FIRST WORKING DAY OF 2016

After the New Year's Day holiday, activity ramped up again in the port as ships were arriving at all the main centres of operation.

The first ship of the year for Cerescorp's Fairview Cove container terminal is the 5041 TEU Allise P for the G6 Alliance. It arrived just as the sun was coming up and berthed at the east end of the pier.

Built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan, it is a 53,481 grt, 53,900 dwt ship and worked under charter to Maersk Lines as Maersk Dubrovnik until 2014. It then reverted to owners Stefan Patjens Reederei GmbH. It has been calling in Halifax for almost a year, with its first call on February 17, 2015.

The second arrival a few hours later was a new ship to Halifax. Rio Blackwater is also on G6 service and is also German owned, by Ahrenkiel Steamships Gmbh+Co. It was built in 2000, also by Hyundai, Ulsan and is a 5551 TEU ship of of 65,059 grt, 68,121 dwt. It started life as CSCL Shanghai and became MSC Shenzhen in 2008, Rio Blackwarter in 2010 then Buenos Aires Express later in 2001 . It became Rio Blackwater again in 2015. It has also worked for OOCL and only two weeks ago was listed on Maersk schedules in the Suez Canal, so it is really a jack of all trades.

The ship has a somewhat unusual looking superstructure, reminiscent of a tanker with long bridge wings,  whereas most container ships have a wider superstructure.Newer ships have compressed the length of their superstructures to increase carrying capacity.

Autoport's first arrival of the year is Procyon Leader or NYK Line. The 52,581 grt ship built in 2000 by Tsuneishi, Numakuma is one of more than 120 such ships in the NYK stable. NYK does not publish a fleet list with ship's capacities, but this one would certainly exceed 5,000 autos.

Halterm was the busiest spot hosting three ships. Zim Savannah and Maersk Penang arrived before sunup, and CMA CGM Bianca waited offshore until it was time for Maersk Penang to sail. It was not terribly prompt in doing so, and after boarding its pilot Bianca inched its way. When Penang finally got off the berth it took the western channel outbound to give the big ship room in the main channel.

Maersk Penang begins its swing into the western channel (passing a lobster boat) as CMA CGM Bianca is finally able to head inbound.

CMA CGM Bianca dates from 2011 when it was delivered by Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Heavy Industry Co Ltd. It has a capacity of 8530 TEU (including 700 reefers) with a gross tonnage of 90,500 and deadweight tonnage of 101,433. As such it is typical of the size of ships on the Columbus loop. The ship is owned by Danaos Shipping Co Ltd of Piraeus and flies the Maltese flag on its charter to CMA CGM.

Due to its later than planned arrival, the ship will be working well into the night to discharge its cargo, since the newer and larger Halterm cranes are occupied with Zim Savannah at pier 41.

The truly mammoth size of these ships- and still very far from the world's largest - can really be appreciated in a wide angle view, such as this one taken from my smart phone.

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