Friday - big rush

 The end of the work week is usually a busy time in the Port of Halifax as ships complete their work and time their departures to be at sea on weekends. However today Friday, June 28, was a little unusual as there were also several arrivals. 

One notable arrival was the CMA CGM Leo on the Ocean Alliance from Colombo (June 4) via the Cape of Good Hope. Ships of this line usually call in Halifax on Saturday, but the ship began working on arrival at Pier 41, PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway. 

There was a stiff breeze so the ship took four tugs on arrival, with the Atlantic Larch far forward. (I suspect the ship had a faulty bow thruster). Atlantic Bear and Atlantic Beaver tethered aft and Atlantic Willow on the port side well forward. [Atlantic Larch is based in Saint John and considered to be the "outside tug" for work away from that port. It has exchanged places with the Halifax based Atlantic Fir for the past few weeks.]

CMA CGM Leo is a 131,332 gt, 131,236 dwt ship built in 2010 by Hyundai, Ulsan. It has a container capacity of 11,388 TEU. It is another of the largest type of container ship with the bridge aft. Many ships of its size have the bridge structure well forward.

Also at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway was the Vega Vela arriving yesterday from Valenica, Spain and sailing this afternoon for Mariel, Cuba for Melfi Marine Corp. It is a new ship to the route, and was previously reported in Tunisia.

Carrying the usual deck load of containers, the ship also had a truck with a stainless steel tanker body just forward of the superstructure, likely secured on a platform or flat rack container. The ship also loaded an unusual piece of unknown function. Spreaders and slings were used to hoist the unit aboard.

Vega Vela is a 9931 gt, 13,879 dwt ship with a container capacity of 1118 TEU. Most of the ships running to Cuba carry cargo cranes, but this ship does not. It was built in 2005 by Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing as Ulrike F and became TS Singapore in the same year, but reverted to Ulrike F in 2007. In 2012 it was renamed Paola and in 2015 E.R.Hobart. In 2019 it settled in as Vega Vela.

PSA Halifax's Atlantic Gateway also worked the Nolhan Ava which vacated Pier 41 and sailed for St-Pierre et Miquelon as CMA CGM Leo  arrived.

PSA Fairvew Cove was also active with ZIM Iberia arriving early a.m. and sailing for New York late afternoon.The ship is a regular on the ZCA service from the Mediterranean.

While it was outbound the ZIM feeder ship Contship Art was inbound.

It will pick up containers dropped off from ZIM Iberia and take them to ZIM's hub port of  Kingston, Jamaica for Caribbean desintations. It appears to be returning empties to Halifax.

PSA Fairview Cove also had the Oceanex Sanderling on its weekly run to St.John's, NL

 

And yes that is the Mi Cabana of Tiki Tours motoring alongside, thatched roof and all, lending a tropical touch to the scene. This is the boat's second season of operation. See my opinion from last year: July 29, 2023.

Once the Sanderling was clear the arriving Atlantic Sail took its place at the Fairvew Cove west berth RoRo ramp. (No photo of the ACL this time.)

Autoport was not to be left out as it had the SFL Conductor from Emden with a load of Volkswagen products.

 Find out more from my March 29, 2023 post. Its charter to VW has been extended to the fourth quarter of 2026.

SFL Conductor carries a side ramp. It would be interesting to know when the ship uses this ramp. Many newer auto carriers don't have side ramps at all, so it is likely that very few ports use them. Autoport cannot accommodate side ramps as they would project over the opposite side of the jetty.

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SFL Conductor

 The large shipowning company SFL (formerly Ship Finance International Corp) made another appearance in Halifax today. Since its founding in 2003 the company has expanded from tankers into bulk carriers, containers, auto carriers and oil rigs. 

Its last caller in Halifax was the large tanker SFL Thelon on March 20. The 159,500 dwt ship required repairs en route from Saudi Arabia to Saint John, NB with a cargo of crude oil. 

 

After a short spell in port here, it stood by about 50 miles offshore until repairs were completed and on March 23 it got underway for Saint John. It anchored off Saint John March 24 and today, March 29, moved in and connected with the Single Point Mooring unit off Canaport and began to discharge cargo via pipeline.

Meanwhile in Halifax SFL's presence was marked this morning by the auto carrier SFL Conductor, a ship that called here twice in 2022 (see Shipfax July 14  and December 30.)

Built in 2006 by Shin Kurushima in Onishi, Japan, the 60,116 gt, 17,709dwt ship served initially as Favorite Ace, becoming Glovis Ace in 2012 and SFL Conductor in 2019. It has a capacity of 6500 CEU, and is on charter to Volkswagen until the third quarter of 2023.

Although incorporated in Bermuda with its shares traded on the New York Stock exchange, SFL's owner's base of operations is Oslo. Its various subsidiaries have offices in London, Singapore and Limassol. The majority owner, with 18.6% of the shares, is a John Frederiksen family trust. Frederiksen is the publicized shipping magnate who has recently been involved in the take over of another tanker company, Euronav, controlled by the Belgian Saverys family. Euronav's "Cape" tankers are regular suppliers of Valero's Jean Gaulin refinery in Lévis, QC.

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All Out

 Today, December 30, was another busy day in the Port of Halifax with activity at almost every pier in advance of another long holiday weekend. Both container terminals had ships alongside and more due while Autoport had its third ship in as many days.

PSA Fairview Cove had the colourful ONE Helsinki for THE Alliance. When it sailed NYK Romulus took its berth. The coastal ConRo Nolhan Ava was also alongside loading for Argentia, NL and St-Pierre et Miquelon.

 Built in 2012 by IHI, Kure as Helsinki Bridge the 96,801gt, 96,980 dwt ONE Helsinki has a capacity of 8930 TEU according to most sources. K-Line renamed the ship in 2020 as part of the Ocean Network Express amalgamation (in 2017) of the primary Japanese container lines (K-Line, MOL and NYK) to form Ocean Network Express.

The photo shows quite clearly why a second navigating bridge was added above the orginal one. It allows for the required visibility forward when the deck load was increased to six-high container stacks. 

Predictably ONE's choice of hull colour - magenta - has not proven to be terribly practical. The paint has faded due to ultra-violet degradation (and not evenly at that.) and touch ups do not match older paint. Also the usual wear and tear, rust streaks and tug and pilot boat contact scuff marks show up much more readily than on other colours. The problem is most obvious around the pilot door, but also appears at scuppers and drains.

As one of the biggest ships to call at PSA Fairview Cove, this ship made use of the tugs Atlantic Bear (alongside) and Atlantic Oak (tehered stern escort) as it made its way outbound through the Narrows.

 PSA's Southend terminal has ZIM Yokohama alongside with APL Sentosa due on its departure. Oceanex Sanderling was also working at the Atlantic Hub, but moved to Autoport when the berth was free. When there is a space clear tomorrow the smaller Lagarfoss, in Eimskip's Green Line service, will come alongside at Pier 42. In the meantine it anchored in the lower harbour.

Autoport had the SFL Conductor in from Emden, Germany.

Built in 2006 as Favorite Ace by Shin Kurushima, Hiroshima, the 60,118 gt, 17,709 dwt ship was renamed Glovis Conductor in 2012 and SFL Conductor in 2019. It has a capacity of 6500 Car Equivalent Units. The ship gave Baltimore as its destination on departure this afternoon

There was one more notable arrival, but that will be the suject of another post. See "Name Changer".

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Cars and Gasoline for Cars

 The supply of new cars from Europe continues with another Volkswagen charter at Autoport today. SFL Conductor may be a first time caller. (its fleet mate SFL Composer was here June 22.)

Built in 2006 as Favorite Ace by Shin Kurushima, Hiroshima, the 60,118 gt, 17,709 dwt ship was renamed Glovis Conductor in 2012 and SFL Conductor in 2019. It has a capacity of 6500 Car Equivalent Units. The ship gave Baltimore as its destinaiton on departure late this afternoon (July 14).

To keep the cars running, the oil companies continue to bring in refined products such as gasoline and diesel. Today's arrival was the Canadian flagged Algosea, docking at Imperial Oil's number 3 dock.

The ship sailed from Sarnia, on July 8 and recorded no port calls en route.

Cars also move to and from Newfoundland thanks to Oceanex, and its Oceanex Sanderling has returned to its regular schedule, arriving from St.John's yesterday (July 13) at Autoport. After loading cars it went to anchorage number 5* in the lower harbour last evening.

Early this morning it moved to the South End terminal, PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub to work containers and other RoRo cargo. It is due to depart at its usual time of 1800 hrs ADT tomorrow (Friday, July 15).

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* I have received requests to give more detailed information about the anchorages in Halifax harbour. I am preparing a map which will be available soon, and I will devise a link from this blog so that it can be accessed for reference.

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