Big on Reefers

 

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services operates two services to the Port of Halifax. The ZCA is a weekly trans Atlantic route from the eastern Mediterranean and is one of the oldest and largest customers of the Port of Halifax. The most recent arrival on that route was the ZIM Atlantic on November 3. It remained in port, until early November 5, as a storm passed offshore.

A newer operation is the  ZCX weekly service that runs from Halifax to the line's Kingston, Jamaica hub for Caribbean cargo and on to South America and return via New York.

The latter route also serves as a feeder service for the former route. It has been using a variety of short term charter ships that have not been re-named with ZIM names.

One of the ZCX ships, which made its first arrival here December 22, 2023 is the Annie B. Its most recent arrival was yesterday, November 5, from New York.

 Built in 2003 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan the 28,596 gt, 39,383 dwt ship has a capacity of 2826 TEU including 554 reefers. Its original name was Cardonia (still visible in welded letters on the bow) but was renamed on delivery as CMA CGM Ukraine, a name it carried until 2006 when it became Cardonia again. It was given the name of Annie B during the summer of 2023.

 Although lightly loaded it was carrying a large number of reefer containers. ZIM's reefers are labeled "ZIMonitor" to promote the company's tracking and control system for refrigerated cargoes. The system is "human-operated" and uses GPS to record the location of the containers and receives and sends signals to monitor and control temperature for perishables.

On sailing today, November 6,  the Annie B had slightly fewer reefers visible on deck. (We could have used some temperature control in Nova Scotia as there was significant snow fall at higher elevations, with a non-accumulating mixture of rain and snow along the coast.) 

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Friday Action

 Fridays are often busy in the port of Halifax with ships arriving and sailing at the end of the work week. (The container terminals accept truck arrivals Monday to Friday only).  Today, June 14, was no exception with four container ship arrivals and four container ship departures,

The first arrival was the CMA CGM Chile an Argentina class 149,314 gt, 157,076 dwt ship with a capacity of 15,072 TEU. It was built by Hyundai Samho in 2019 and has been calling for the OCEAN Alliance since new. On this trip it departed Colombo on May 14 and sailed via the Cape of Good Hope to Tanger Med, Morocco arriving June 6 and sailing June 7. Most container ships continue to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal due to risk of attack.

CMA CGM Chile beneath the mountain of containers at Pier 41.

Also at PSA Atlantic Gateway was the Silver Arctic, a ship at the other end of the size scale, berthed at Pier 42. A short term charter for TSMI, it is filling in while the regular ship, the Nolhan Ava has been in refit in Setubal, Portugal. That ship is now on its way back to North America and is due in Argentia June 18 to resume its weekly Halifax / St-Pierre / Argentia container and RoRo service.

The Silver Arctic is operated for the Silver Line of Bergen, Norway under the Norwegian International registry by Fjord Shipping AS of Mäloy. It was launched in 2010, but was not completed in 2012 when the builders Shipyard P+S Werften went bankrupt. Construction was transferred to Remontowa Shipbuilding in Gdansk, Poland in 2013 but there was further delay in 2018 when the original owners, Royal Arctic Line, refused acceptance. It was then sold to Fjord and completed in 2021. It is a 3162 gt, 2700 dwt ship with a capacity of 111 TEU (59 on deck) including 80 reefers (28 on deck) and carries one 25 tonne and one 45 tonne SWL crane. (It has no RoRo capability however.) 

Its first sailing from Halifax for TSMI was April 5 and was expected to cover the route for six to eight weeks. The ship operates regularly to Antarctica and Greenland, so will likely be headed home at the end of the charter in time for arctic work.

Not long after Silver Arctic sailed, the MSC Lisa arrived from Montreal on the CANEX2 route, and took up the vacated berth 42.

 

 Hanjin Heavy Industry and Construction Co built the MSC Lisa in Busan in 2004. The 54,304 gt, 68,578 dwt ship has a capacity of 5059 TEU. It arrived loaded to St.Lawrence River draft, and will top up cargo to ocean draft.

The ship's arrival was coordinated with the departure of the ZIM Atlantic from PSA Fairview Cove so that the two ships met just off the Southend Container Terminal after the MSC Lisa had completed its turn and backed in to Pier 42 leaving the main channel clear.

 

There is a lot more room between the two ships than it appears in this photo, so a pleasure craft could speed though in relative safety.

ZIM Atlantic is running on the ZIM Container Atlantic (ZCA) service from the Mediterranean. Its hull paint still has a glossy appearance, indicating that its recent survey and drydocking in May included new paint. 

When the ship arrived in Halifax the first time September 23, 2023 it still carried the blue hull paint of its previous owners.

 The ship was launched in 2009 by Hyundai Heavy Industry Co Ltd in Ulsan as the CPO Richmond for the Claus-Peter Offen company of Hamburg, however it was delivered with the name Cap Harvey for charter to Hamburg-Süd and carried that company's traditional red hull paint.

In 2017 the ship moved to CMB NV ownership (Cie Maritime Belge) and was managed by their wholly owned subsidiary Bocimar.  It then acquired blue hull paint and was renamed Heron Hunter. In late 2021 the ship was sold again this time to direct ownership by ZIM with Hammonia Reederei of Hamburg, as managers. (Hammonia manages several other ZIM ships too.) The renaming to ZIM Atlantic was effective January 1, 2022, but the hull was not repainted at once. 

Other container ship activity not detailed above was the early morning departure of the ZIM feeder Pacific Trader and the weekly Oceanex Sanderling container  / RoRo to St. John's.Boh are familiar sights in Halifax and have been covered here before.

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Blue for ZIM

Some shipping companies have distinctive colour schemes (Maersk comes to mind immediately) but others are satisfied with serviceable black and white. ZIM is certainly one of the latter, so it was a bit of a surprise to see a blue hulled ZIM ship arriving today on the ZCA (ZIM Container Atlantic) service. Aptly named ZIM Atlantic, the ship carries an attractive medium blue hull and white superstructure, with what appears to be the start of a ZIM funnel marking (less the stars).

 This is not the harbinger of things to come however, but is a carry over of colours from the ship's last operators. Even that was not the ship's original hull colour, as photos on the internet show it with a red hull.

The ship was built in 2009 by Hyundai Heavy Indsutry Co Ltd in Ulsan as the CPO Richmond for the Claus-Peter Offen company of Hamburg, however it was delivered with the name Cap Harvey for charter to Hamburg-Süd and carried that company's traditional red hull paint.

In 2017 the ship moved to CMB NV ownership (Cie Maritime Belge) and managed by their wholly owned subsidiary Bocimar.  It then acquired the current blue paint and was renamed Heron Hunter. 

 In late 2021 or early 2022 ownership changed again, this time to direct ownership by ZIM with Hammonia Reederei of Hamburg, as managers. (Hammonia manages several other ZIM ships too.) The renaming to ZIM Atlantic was effective January 1, 2022.

The ship is due for class renewal next May, so is likely to be repainted then in ZIM black.

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AFL New England - sad story continued

June 14 marks the first anniversary of the arrival of AFL New England in Halifax for the start of a new feeder line to the US east coast. Unfortunately no one is celebrating. The saga of American Feeder Lines and the ship AFL New England reached a turning point while I was away. According to newspaper reports the likelihood that the ship's crew would run out of food hastened the Halifax Port Authority's decision to order the ship alongside pier 33. It had been anchored in Bedford Basin since AFL terminated its service, and I understand that numerous maritime liens were placed on the ship by various unpaid creditors.

1. AFL New England anchored in Bedford Basin in April - stormy times were ahead.

Since tying up the crew has been repatriated, although I do not think they have received all their back wages. The Halifax Port Authority has taken possession and is providing security/watchman services.
The owner of the ship is a single ship company and its only asset is the ship, so it will end up being sold to satisfy creditors. The company behind the shipowner would like to have the ship back and put it back in service, but is unwilling/unable to satisfy the liens and unable/unwilling to post a bond to cover them, and is therefore presumably willing to forfeit the ship. Whether he is eligible to purchase the ship by marshal's sale is a matter of legal interpretation.
The ship was bareboat chartered to AFL, and the owner probably does not feel responsible for any of the resulting mess. The judicial sale prpocess may take many months, and so for the time being the ship remains tied up at pier 33.
The unfortunate history of feeder lines running from Halifax has had some bright spots over the years, but there has always been the issue of finding enough traffic to make the service pay.  Most operations were discontinued because they could not generate enough business.
Here is a sampling of some of the earlier ships:

2. Bergfalck as it was then called, began a Halifax/ US East Coast feeder service in 1973 for Maritime Coastal Container Line. It ran for a few years, but the ship was renamed Berglind in 1977 and took up a charter with Saguenay Shipping, and the next year worked out of Iceland. It sank off Glace Bay in 1980 after a collision with the Danish cargo ship Charm.

3. Zim Container Lines started its own feeder service in 1977 with Zim Atlantic It ran between Halifax, Boston, Baltimore and Norfolk.

4. Zim Northland took over the service in 1978 and ran until about 1983.

5. The most successful feeder service was operated by Hapag-Lloyd using the Yankee Clipper, Starting in January 1980. It ran between Halifax, Portsmouth and Boston

6. Later repainted blue, the ship made its last trip in October 1993.

A strange theme runs through all these ships - every one of those pictured (except Zim Atlantic) was built by the J.J.Sietas shipyard in Germany.

Another short-lived operation was Searoad, operated by a Gloucester MA company, using the ship Grey Master in 1974. It was to provide a RoRo, truck trailer service between Halifax and Gloucester. The ship could carry 60 semi-trailers or 75 cars, but its initial thrice weekly service was cut back and eventually discontinued. 

7. Grey Master was a lovely ship, and could even carry 12 passengers.

8. Searoad  did not attract enough business and was gone in a matter of months.