Horizon

Although the horizon was hard to see through snow squalls, the ship named Horizon was a little more visible as it made its way inbound for pier 9B.

Bulk carriers have been rare sights in Halifax in any event, but even more so now that there is no bunkering tanker in the port.  Tugs were  made up to turn the ship in the Narrows to tie up at pier 9B - a berth usually assigned for repairs. The ship had been under Port State Control detention in Port Alfred for four days, November 30 to December 4,  so its visit here is likely to follow up on the numerous deficiencies found in that inspection.

The ship is in ballast, arriving from Port Alfred, La Baie, QC. It is a bit unusual as bulkers go because it was not built at one of the more likely shipyards in Korea. Instead it comes from the Indian state owned Hindustan Shipyard in Visakhapatnam. Built in 2007 as Good Providence it became Bulk Providence in 2013 and Horizon in 2014. It is currently managed by Goodearth Maritime, a company based in India and part of the Archean Group, primarily a resource company.  The ship is equipped with four cranes and grab buckets for cargo handling and measures 19,891 grt, 30,193 dwt.

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Halterm Expansion - continued

Following up on yesterday's post comes today's news that CN Rail has made a preliminary offer to acquire the Halterm operation from Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, owners since 2007. CN's offer includes an undisclosed partner and is part of a larger strategic plan by CN to expand its eastern interests and that includes two other ports, one in Nova Scotia and one on the St.Lawrence River.

There is much speculation on what the other ports may be. Quebec City would certainly be one, but so is the Ceres terminal at Fairview Cove in Halifax (also reported to be available for purchase) and even the proposed Melford project on the Strait of Canso. CN's plan is to make Halifax the "Prince Rupert of the east" and would involve a major upgrade in its Halifax rail infrastructure to allow it to assemble complete trains at Halterm. Presently trains of up to 12,000 feet are assembled in the crowded Rockingham yard with cars brought from Halterm, Ceres and CN's intermodal terminal near pier 9.

CN shunting currently blocks road access to Halterm at least twice a day for several minutes at a time.

Assembling a complete train at Halterm would be a more efficient process, and a separate train from Fairview and the intermodal terminal could then be assembled in the Rockingham yard. Similarly arriving trains would run directly into Halterm without requiring a lot of shunting at Rockingham.

CN's southend rail yard is outside the gates of Halterm, but could be reconfigured. 

Entrance track to Halterm at far right.

CN south end yard also serves the deepwater piers, the grain elevator and the VIA Rail station and discourages visitors from its land with varying degrees of success.

There are many other aspects that remain to be discovered during this sale process - specifically the impact on road traffic in downtown Halifax and the future of commuter rail sharing CN's tracks from suburban areas to downtown. If Halterm's perimter were to expand (again) would there be through traffic on Marginal Raod, through the port?

Meanwhile work on the berth 42 extension has started in earnest, with the removal of the pedestrian walkway along the present extension. Yesterday's photo shows that some of the walkway had already been removed.

Sawcutting away the pier 42 walkway to allow for expansion.

Today crews were busy sawing off some more. This is a big boo-hoo for ship watchers and others who use the breakwater and walkway for exercise, but I have been assured by the Chairman of the Port that there will be a walkway as part of the new expansion.

 Nevertheless illustrations of the new addition do not show a walkway on the extension. The breakwater itself has been gated off so even that section of the walk that will not be effected by construction is no longer accessible.


Halterm has all berths filled and two ships waiting this morning, so an expansion is obviously in order. My contention that smaller ships should go to Fairview would certainly relieve this pressure, but would never happen if the two terminals are competitors as they are now.

Asian Sun waits at anchor to load for Tropical Shipping, while Halterm works Eimskip's EF Eva.

I have heard no mention recent;y of  a CN "land bridge" that would connect CN's west coast terminal at Prince Rupert (by coincidence also called Fairview) with Halifax. A "Fairview to Fairview" train would cut days off the Asia to Europe sea route and could serve the US mid-west and east coast by "peeling off" trains at various CN terminals en route. But this is part of much bigger picture.

Last night the tug Mister Joe arrived with the dredge Derrick No.4 and work boat J.F.WHalen on deck.  Currently docked at pier 9, they are being readied to begin dredging.

 
Over the coming months Shipfax will be monitoring the southward expansion of Halterm, but I will try not to be totally preoccupied with the project.

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Halterm Expansion

Business seems to be booming at Halterm these days despite the departure of Maersk's MMX (possibly temporarily.) Today saw the arrival of APL Mexico City another of the 9200 TEU class of ships operating for Columbus JAX service (and four days late). It was able to squeeze in to pier 41 to use the big cranes while Asian Sun was at berth 42 for Tropical Shipping. Tomorrow will be an even busier day with ZIM and Eimskip vying for space with Oceanex and St-Pierre et Miquelon.

APL Mexico City 109,712 grt, 108,564 dwt, built 2014 Daewoo, Okpo.

The dredging contract for the southward pier extension has been awarded to McNally Construction, and the company has begun to mobilize - setting up a construction office at pier 23 and delivering two dump scows to pier 9.

A pair of McNally dump scows delivered to pier 9 by the tug Mister Joe on Monday await arrival of the dredge and workboats in tow late tonight.

The current pier 42 extension is undergoing some surface patching while Tropical's reefer containers are lined up for cleaning before going back south.

The new extension will be at least this long again but of entirely different construction.

Recent startling statistics show that the relative boom in the US economy, coupled with the opening of the enlarged Panama Canal has resulted in the average size of ships on the Asia to North America Gulf of Mexico and East Coast, including Canada, increasing substantially to exceed the average  size of ship in the Asia-Europe  trade.
Shipowners continue to build giant ships for the Asia-Europe trade, pushing slightly smaller ships to the Asia- North America Gulf and East Coast.
There are currently 33 ships of more than 20,000 TEU trading between Asia and Europe, 46 between 18 and 20,000 TEU and 9 from 16-18,000 TEU. It is expected that with the delivery of many more large ships this year some of the 40 ships in the 14-16,000 TEU range and many of the 25 ships in the 12-14,000 range will be shifted from Asia-Europe.

Currently there are no ships larger than 20,000 TEU and only five ships of 14-16,000 TEU trading to eastern North America, 27 in the 12-14,000 range and 8 of 10-12,000. The largest number, 98, are of 8,000 to 10,000 TEU.

Halterm, if it can berth two of the larger ships of up to 14,000 TEU, and work them with enough cranes  to get them in and out quickly, may be able to keep pace with US ports.

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more Maersk, more gypsum

Maersk Patras did show up today - between snow showers-looking quite splendid in its fresh paint.

Compare to pre-refit photo from April. Note also the lighter load for the Med Montreal Express, for which this may be the last Halifax call for a time.

For several previous references on this site- enter Maersak Patras in the Search bock to the left. 

National Gypsum continues to ship increased quantities of  the material, now averaging about one ship a week, although there have been up to two or three in recent weeks.

Today Algoma Integrity arrived to load. 

At the end of July Algoma applied for a coasting license to bring the ship into the Canadian trade running a tightly orchestrated series of runs to transport 525,000 tonnes of iron ore pellets from Port Cartier to Contrecoeur, QC and 150,000 tonnes of construction aggregates to Lower Cove, NL. No other Canadian flag ships were available at the time, and the Canadian Transportation Agency provided that determination to the Minister. However the license was never taken up and Algoma Integrity continues to run internationally.

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Maersk shuffle - continued

Maersk Niteroi sailed Sunday afternoon after its first call on the Canada Atlantic Express (CAE). The ship is new on the run after making trips on Maersk's Mediterranean Montreal Express (MMX) in October and November.

 Maersk Niteroi clears Halterm bound for Bremerhaven.

The CAE eastbound service runs from  Montreal to Halifax, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam and Antwerp.

The MMX runs westbound from Salerno, La Spezia, Fos and Algeciras to Montreal. Maersk will be dropping the Halifax call eastbound at least for the winter, with the final eastbound sailing expected to be - yes- Maersk Patras on Tuesday. That ship has just been transferred from the CAE service to the MMX. Maersk Palermo will be returning to the CAE.

Maersk Patras has had a major refit since this photo was taken in April after a hard winter running on the North Atlantic.

It is reported that Maersk will be adding two Med stops to the MMX, but will not add ships to the run, so in order to keep the weekly arrivals in Montreal, it has dropped Halifax. As previously reported it has already increased the size of the ships to meet demand.



Also there will be another new ship on the CAE service. Vuoksi Maersk is expected to show its face in Halifax  next weekend.

Confusing enough, but there is more. There may be a "one of" westbound call for one of the MMX ships in the next week or so.

Maersk has recently made it known that despite other companies such as state-owned COSCO and Japanese conglomerate ONE going out on the limb with more new huge ships, it will not order any newbuild  ships in 2019. Its share of the world container market has shrunk to 4.02 mn TEU from 4.11 mn TEU in 2018, even including its Hamburg-Sud and Safmarine divisions. Nor is the company contemplating more mergers. Global container capacity has increased 6% to 22.69mn TEU and it is likely that many other companies are considering consolidating and rationalizing their fleets when demand is not increasing as rapidly.

HAPAG-Lloyd for example seems to be taking a leaf out of CN's message of 2017 - when all else fails, improve customer service!  H-L has stated they will concentrate on quality in the hope that there is a demand for a premium service at a premium price, in exchange for reliability.

All lines are also facing new emission rules and will have to retrofit exhaust gas scrubbers to ships that burn heavy fuel (that is most of the ships) at great expense, with no measurable return to cover the cost, not to mention lost time at sea while the conversions take place.

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Canadian Coast Guard Stretched

The Canadian Coast Guard is scrambling to meet its various commitments for aids to navigation and search and rescue. With the opening of the lobster season in southwestern Nova Scotia there have been complaints that the Coast Guard lifeboats in the area were not ready. CCGC Clarke's Harbour returned to Cape Sable Island after refit but had at least two engine breakdowns en route. It is now on station, however CCGC Courtenay Bay from Saint John is also at Clarke's Harbour, leading me to wonder if Clarke's Harbour is in fact serviceable.

 Arun class lifeboats are being replaced.

One of the Halifax based patrol boats, CCGS Corporal McLaren MMV is out of service indefinitely after it partially sank in Sambro during a refit.

 Its counter part CCGS G.Peddle S.C. is supposed to go for its refit in January, but that may have to be delayed. These vessels play an important part in enforcement and SAR during the busy winter lobster season.

The several boats of this class based in Quebec and Ontario are going into winter layup, and so far there does not appear to be any plan to bring one to this region to fill in.

Other lifeboats, that are due for replacement, will remain in service this winter from what I can see as the two most recent deliveries have been shipped to the west coast. They took a ride on Atlantic Raven from Saint John as it makes its trip to take up emergency towing duties on the Pacific coast.

Quebec City based CCGS Marha L. Black is in Hamilton, ON for refit.

With winter fast approaching here and already arrived further north and west, the Quebec City base is short of vessels too. CCGS Martha L.Black is in refit at Heddle Marine in Hamilton, ON and is supposed to return to Quebec before the Seaway closes for the winter. In the meantime the CCGS Sir William Alexander has been sent from Halifax to do winter buoy removal out of Quebec City. This has delayed its life extension program which was supposed to start in November.

 CCGS Sir William Alexander is now in Quebec.

CCGS Griffon has completed a refit in Méchins,QC, but also appears to be working in the Quebec area before returning to the Lakes where it is needed for winter work.

The Atlantic region is already short of vessels with CCGS Edward Cornwallis in life extension refit in St.John's until next spring and CCGS Earl Grey at the BIO base until the end of the year. CCGS Sir Wilfred Grenfell has been sent from Newfoundland to assist with search and rescue for the opening of the lobster season. CCGS Cape Roger, also from Newfoundland is also in the southwest Nova Scotia area.

All this is not to mention icebreaking which is another area of stress for the CCG. Both CCGS Terry Fox and CCGS Louis St-Laurent will be out of service until at least the end of January. The Quebec base will also be short two icebreakers at least this winter. The newly acquired icebreaker Captain Molly Kool (ex Vidar Viking) may be able take up some of the slack, but it is not a proven entity yet. It should be out of refit in December, but its two sister ships, Balder Viking and Tor Viking, will not be ready for work until next summer.

Then there is research conducted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which has been seriously hampered by the lack of serviceable ships. The venerable CCGS Hudson is the only large research vessel operating out of Halifax nowadays, and it is a sink hole for repair dollars.

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First timers and an old timer

Two ships arrived in Halifax today, both of which are new to me, and one that is of long acquaintance.

The tanker Kivalliq W is a first time caller. Named for a region in Nunavut, stretching inland from the western shore of Hudson Bay, and the people who live there, the ship also has the letter 'W" for the Woodward Group. The ship's owner, Coastal Shipping Ltd, is part of the Woodward Group of companies, based in Happy Valley Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador. Their tankers deliver fuel to many far northern communities during the shipping season.

Kivalliq W was built in 2004 in Jiangyang Shipyard, Shanghai as Falcon for Norwegian owners Utkilen AS. In 2009 it was renamed Sten Fjord when management was taken over by Sternersen AS, also of Norway. In 2016 Coastal Shipping registered the ship in Canada and it operated as Sten Fjord. Each year from December to June the ship reverted to Marshal Island registry and traded overseas. In June of this year when it returned to Canadian flag it carried the new name Kivalliq W.

Since December 1 has been the normal re-flagging date for the last two winters it will be interesting to see if that change occurs while the ship is here. It is unloading a cargo from Quebec at Imperial Oil's number 4 dock.

The auto carrier Onyx Arrow arrived from Portbury, UK (opposite Avonmouth and near Portishead) sporting a blue and green colour scheme which I have not seen before. Owned by the single ship company Onyx Maritime, it is managed by Ray Carriers and Stamco Ship Management , but is wearing a K-Line funnel mark, so is on some form of charter. Usually such charters have the ship painted in the colours of the charterer, but obviously not in this case.

Heading northbound in the Narrows with tugs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Bear.



Built in 2006 by Stocznia Gydnia in Poland the ship 57,692 grt, 21,087 dwt ship. Once the ship completed its work at Autoport it move to pier 9C via Bedford Basin where it was turned to come alongside starboard side to. I am assuming the ship has some repairs to perform or possibly has damaged cargo to unload. More may be known tomorrow.

 Turned and heading back into the Narrows.

At IT Telecom's pier 9B the icebreaker Polar Prince has returned to port after a summer of working in the far north. It sailed from the same pier July 6. The former CCGS Sir Humphrey Gilbert was working deep into Hudson's Bay, using side scan sonar and gravity coring to survey the marine route for a fibre optic cable that will eventually link communities on the east coast of the bay in the Nunavik region. Using side scan sonar, the ship was accompanied by the Leeway Odyssey (also based in Halifax and which returned to The Cove a week or so ago).  The cable is expected to be laid in 2021.

The ship, which is Canada's only commercial icebreaker was built by Davie Shipbuilding in 1959 and refitted with a new bow by Halifax Shipyard in 1985. Although retired from the Coast Guard in 2000 the ship has made many northern trips since, including last year's sesquicentennial circumnavigation of North America.It is due to spend the winter in its home port of Lunenburg.