Busy Day

 There was a lot of activity in Halifax harbour today, November 20, mostly container ships.

An over night arrival anchored in the lower harbour. MSC Sagitta III is on the Mediterranean Shipping Company's Canada Gulf Bridge route and does not normally call in Halifax. Because of the large number of containers landed in Halifax during the Montreal longshore workers strike MSC has applied to use this ship and the MSC Baltic III to transfer the stranded boxes to Montreal. (Some have already been dispatched by train and truck, but there were reportedly 5,000 boxes left off in this port.) Canada's cabotage law restricts shipping between Canadian ports to Canadian ships, unless no suitable Canadian ships are available. In such cases a coasting license may be granted to a foreign ship, and I expect the MSC Sagitta III is waiting for the Minister of Public Safety to grant the license  in the next few days.

MSC Sagitta III was built by Nordseewerker, Emden in 2010. The 36,519 gt, 42,614 dwt ship was a capacity of 3428 TEU and has a large nuber of reefer plugs, noted as "392 + 108". [I'm not certain what that means but may describe the number below and above deck or vice versa.]

Initially named Frisia Brussel it was renamed Sagitta in 2010 and MSC Sagitta III in 2021.

The ship is northbound from Freeport, Bahamas, and is expected to top up at PSA Fairview Cove on the first of three trips once the license is granted.

Arriving at PSA Fairview Cove, the NYK Nedula held off the dock allowing Ophelia to sail (see yesterday's post.)

At the same time the Oceanex Sanderling was arriving from St.John's and it also held off in Bedford Basin before coming alongside.

Container activity at PSA Atlantic Gateway got off to a slow start as there was no acitivity in the morning.

With the coastal tanker Algonova at anchor in the foreground waiting its turn at Imperial Oil, there was a backdrop of the South End Container Terminal with all its cranes inactive. Two cranes were in the "down" position. The northmost crane (at right in the photo) is rarely raised. It is one of the new cranes at the facility and may have a problem. One other crane was also down and it certainly did appear to be U/S as traveller wires were sagging and the spreader appeared to be on the ground. (Not sure why the adjacent crane had chains hanging from its spreader.)

 Things picked up at the SECT as the day wore on.

A noontime arrival was the MSC Don Giovanni another Canada Gulf Bridge ship arriving from Montreal, likely to top up to salt water draft. This is another "classic" from MSC, built in 1996. It is a hatchless design of the revolutionary Eco Box 42 class, from the Flensburger Shipbuilding Company in Emden. The 29,181 gt, 41,590 dwt ship has a capacity of somewhere between 2480 and 2604 TEU (depending on sources.)

It was launched in 1996 as the Jean Lykes but delivered as Jean and very soon sold to MSC and renamed. The famous US shipping company Lykes Line was bankrupt in 1995 and may have defaulted on this ship. CP Ships bought Lykes in 1997 and CP in turn was bought by TUI in 2006 and melded into Hapag-Lloyd.

Considered to be very elegant when new, the ship is looking a tad seedy now.

Soon after it was a new to Halifax caller for Melfi Lines. Orinoco is northbound from Mariel, Cuba.

Built in 2010 by Fujian Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 9994 gt, 12,306 dwt ship has a capacity of 880 TEU and carries two cranes of unknown capacity. The ship was launched as E.R. Helsinki but completed as Friesdijk. It was renamed X-press Tajumulco in 2013 and became the Orinoco in 2020.

There was also tanker activity in Halifax today. As noted above the Algonova arrived and anchored in the lower harbour. It has cargo from Nanticoke, and in the early evening moved to Imperial Oil on the departure of the Al Reem (see previous posts).

There was also a mid-afternoon departure from Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. The East Coast is headed back to Saint John to load after its latest trip to Charlottetown.

The ship makes regular trips to Halifax, Charlottetown and St.John's but also to Boston and Providence from time to time.

The only ship not photographed today was CSL Kajika arriving to load gypsum. The ship made its first call in Halifax on April 19, 2022 and full details are provided in my post of that date.

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Ophelia for ZIM

 As reported November 4, ZIM has joined the former CFX (Canada Feeder Express) with its ZCX Colibri Express west coast South America service. The service operates to numerous North and South American ports from ZIM's Kingston, Jamaica hub.

 Today's arrival on that run is the Ophelia on charter from the long standing German operators Leonhardt + Blumberg (founded in 1903).

 Leonhardt + Blumberg now operates 27 feeder container carriers and five product tankers. Ophelia is fairly typical at 17,907 gt, 21,700 dwt. Dating from 2018, it was delivered by Guangzhou Wenchong. Its capacity is 1717 TEU with 362 reefer plugs, 202 of which are in the holds. South America is a major exporter of produce to Canada, as is ZIM, so the number of temperature controlled boxes on deck is not surprising. The number of loads of course is unkown.

Just below the starboard bridge wing the world "Buss" appears with a red symbol. According to available references Buss were listed as managers for a short time in 2018. The Buss company is multi-faceted with interests in shipping, resources, real estate and terminal operation and is a shareholder in Leonhardt + Blumberg.

The name Ophelia is an odd one for a ship, as the character in Shakespeare's Hamlet (and subsequent operas and movies) lost her mind and drowned. The name is not Danish however but is Greek, as are two other L+B feeders, Octavia and Olympia.

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Cars, Boxes and Propane

There were ships in port today, November 18, with the usual mix of cargoes - containers and automobiles, but there was also one for an unusual commodity.

Among the usual container ships there were two sister ships at PSA Atlantic Gateway - the South End Container Terminal (aka SECT). The ONE Monaco, which arrived yesterday (see previous post) was a late morning departure on the eastbound leg of THE Alliance's EC5 service. The ship is destined for Singapore via the Cape of Good Hope.

With three tugs to assist, the ONE Monaco prepares to get underway.

Meanwhile the sister ship ONE Minato was approaching Halifax on the west bound leg of the same service, passing Cape Town November 6. The two ships met well offshore beyond camera range.

As the ONE Minato arrives, a previous departure, the CMA CGM Rigoletto is visible at an outer anchorage. It went to anchor there after sailing on November 16, and departed for New York later today.

 ONE Minato is the tenth and last of the series of ships in the Milau Bridge class. Built in 2018 it did not carry a "Bridge" name but was delivered as a ONE ship (Ocean Network Express) to partner K-Line. Built by Imabari Zosen in Mihara, the 152,180 gt, 146,696 dwt ship has a capacity of 13,900 TEU.

 Three tugs turn the ship to back in to Pier 41. It appears to be loaded to capacity.

While all this was going on today's Autoport visitor was also getting underway with two tugs (there are currently seven harbour tugs operating in Halifax). Unlike its previous visit on April 28, 2023 the Grand Pavo will not be discharging machinery at Pier 9C.

Built in 2005 by Toyohashi Shipbuilding in Japan, the 59,217 gt, 18,376 dwt ship has a capacity for 6400 cars.  The Pure Truck and Car Carrier (PCTC) operates for the Hong Kong-based Korean company CIDO Shipping and is not related to the Grimaldi Ocean RoRo operator which has ships with the "Grande" prefix. CIDO is set to be a major player in the shipping scene with 72 ships in its current fleet and 40 more on order.

The Grand Pavo appears to be on a round-the-world trip leaving Singapore June 25 it has called in Korea, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and back to Japan and Singapore then to Sagunto (Spain), Avonmouth (UK), Zeebrugge (Belgium), Rya Harbour (Goteborg, Sweden) and Marchwood Military Port (Southampton, UK). It is now headed for New York.

Rounding out today's arrivals is the small Dutch cargo ship Frisian Octa on its second call in Halifax. 

The ship was first here October 22 to October 30 bringing in 30 containers. After several days at anchor the ship moved alongside PSA Fairview Cove where it took on a quantity of containers carrying propane and sailed for Moa, Cuba. This was the first of a possible six month charter to call in Halifax every two weeks for propane and possibly other cargo. [My post of October 25 called it a "mystery ship" - thanks to a reader I now know why it was here.]

Cuba has been in an energy crisis due to a deteriorated power infrastructure, coupled with an unreliable fuel source (namely Venezuela). On top of that the country had two hurricane strikes - Oscar on October 20 and Rafael on November 7, plus a 6.8 Richter scale earthquake on November 10. The entire nation was blacked out on October 18 and there have been periodic outages since. Propane is a useful alternative fuel for vehicles and various appliances. Due to continued uncertainty of fuel supply, propane from Canada would seem to be more dependable,at least for now. US policy toward Cuba may well become more restrictive in the coming months.

Construction of the ship started at Zaliv in Kerch, Ukraine, and was completed by Damen Bergum, in Friesland in 2010. The Ice Class 1 ship has ventilated box shaped holds with pontoon type tween decks. It carries two 40 tonne SWL cranes. The 5425 gt, 8284 dwt ship was built as Beauforce and took its present name in 2021. It is also licensed to carry dangerous cargoes.

At some date the ship was fitted with an exhaust gas scrubber system. The ship's normal exhaust stack was re-routed to the scrubber housing in a sort of Frankenstein arrangement. It appears that exhaust from the ship's auxiliary engines may not be diverted to the scrubber, since the two small stacks are still visible atop the funnel housing.

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A newcomer, among others

 A new to Halifax ship showed up in Halifax today, November 17, along with a pair of previous callers.

ONE Monaco arrived at PSA Atlantic Gateway on THE Alliance's EC5 Asia / North America service, this time east bound from New York. It was here October 14 westbound from Colombo, Sri Lanka, via the Cape of Good Hope, and has since called at the US east coast ports of New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Jaksonvillle, Charleston and New York again.

The seventh of ten ships in its class, it was built in 2018 by Imabari Zosen, Mihara as Monaco Bridge for K-Line. The 150,706 gt, 147,021 dwt ship has a capacity of 13,900 TEU. K-Line joined with the MOL and NYK to form Ocean Network Express (ONE) in 2017 and some of  the ships have been rebranded and repainted to ONE livery. The name change in this case came in 2023. Sister ship ONE Minato is due tomorrow on the westbound leg of the EC5.

The new to Halifax ship is the Spyros V on ZIM's ZCA route from the Mediterranean. Its last port was Messina, Italy and it is bound for New York.

Built in 2011 by Jiangsu New Yangzijiang in Jingjiang, it is a 40,542 gt, 49,891 dwt ship with a capacity of 4250 TEU including 698 reefer slots. It operated as the Bella Schulte for the Thomas Schulte Reederei until 2015 when it was acquired by affiliates of the Greek operator Technomar Shipping Inc, and renamed. The "V" presumably is the Roman numeral, representing the capacity class, similar to MSC's new naming policy.

A repeat visitor, but not a regular one, is the auto carrier Morning Cindy at Autoport on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen North Atlantic route from Bremerhaven and Zeebrugge for New York.

Morning Cindy was built in 2012 by Imabari Zosen in Marugame. The 59,580 gt, 18,735 dwt ship has a capacity of 6,142 Car Equivalent Units. Despite operating for EUKOR (a partnership of Wilhelmsen, Wallenius, American RoRo and United European Car Carriers), ostensibly to carry Korean made auotmobiles, the ship is owned and managed by Japanese interests through a Panama corporation: Excel Marine Co Ltd of Fukuoka.

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MSC Diversion fallout

 Short term work stoppages followed by an indefinite longshore workers strike in the Port of Montreal started on October 31. The employers then declared a lock out as of November 10. The strikers were ordered back to work, by government edict, effective today, November 16, with binding arbitration to follow. As a result of the Montreal shutdown The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) diverted ships to Halifax. The scale of the diversions was apparent from the number of MSC boxes piled up at the two container terminals. [see previous posts]

It is also apparent that clearing those boxes and sending them back on their way to Montreal now that the strike is over will be a major operation. CN Rail has added extra trains, but that is apparently insufficient to move the large number of stranded containers on top of the normal amount of cargo moving through the port at the height of the consumer goods season.

Montreal is a terminal port, where ships unload completely then load new cargo. Halifax in the other hand is usually a waypoint, handling only a portion of the cargo aboard any given ship. When Montreal is unavailable the ships that divert to Halifax must offload all their cargo here. It is fortunate that the Port of Halifax has the additional capacity available so that ships can keep moving instead of being stalled at anchor for the duration of a strike.

MSC has applied for coasting licenses to use two foreign flag ships to move the stranded boxes from Halifax to Montreal. There are no Canadian ships able to handle the amount and type containers, so it is expected that permission will be granted. Trade between Canadian ports is restricted by law to Canadian flagged ships. If no suitable Canadian ships are available a coasting license may be granted to a foreign flag ship by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness upon recommendation by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).

In their application to the CTA, MSC requested permission to use the MSC Baltic III 2526 TEU and MSC Sagitta III 3426 TEU for three trips each between November 24 and December 31 from Halifax to Montreal. The ships normally operate on the Canada Gulf Bridge route from Montreal to Mexico, so may be calling in Halifax on their northbound legs and adding the diverted boxes to whatever cargo they may already have on board or they may be making special trips. They also have relatively large reefer capacity - in excess of 300 TEU each.

In its application to the CTA MSC noted the names of ships that were diverted to Halifax while en route to Montreal: MSC Nahara, MSC Levina III, MSC England and MSC Jordan III [see previous posts]. The application suggests that in excess of 5,000 containers are involved, both loads and empties. There are several hundred temperature controlled containers included, that must be maintained in operation.

Readily identifiable MSC boxes, and others that may have been carried on MSC ships, are stacked in all available space in the two terminals sharing space with the regular number of containers from other lines.

A letter from the Port of Halifax supporting the CTA application states that yard utilization stands at 60% for PSA Fairview Cove and 92% for the PSA Atlantic Gateway. Plug in space for temperature controlled boxes stands at 95% for Fairview and 65% for the Atlantic Gateway.

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Friday

 High winds coupled with rain, may have slowed the work at container terminals again today November 15, but ships were still coming and going. Photos as a result are bit fuzzy due to the rain.

Yesterday the Oceanex Sanderling and ZIM Asia (photo above) joined the tanker Al Reem (see November 13 post and below) at anchor in Bedford Basin, awaiting their berths. When Atlantic Sail sailed later yesterday afternoon they both moved alongside PSA Fairview Cove.

Oceanex Sanderling is expected to sail late afternoon today on its usual departure for St.John's.

ZIM Asia sailed at noon time today, taking a wide turn out into Bedford Basin before lining up for the Narrows. 

A rather bedraggled Africville park asill looked green, thanks to recent mild weather. Canada geese, rather than migrate, have been feeding on the grass and making a mess. The flags were set up to discourage them, but also make effective wind indicators.

The inbound Delphinus C on THE Alliance's AL5 service arrived from Antwerp to take the ZIM Asia's berth.

Another of the seven ship Daedalus class ships built by Hyundai Ulsan in 2007, it was originally the NYK Delphinus, fifth in the series. The 55,487 gt, 65,950 dwt ship has a capacity of 4,888 TEU including 330 reefer plugs. In 2003 the ship was renamed Delphinus C by Cosmoship Management SA of Piraeus, but remains on the AL5 route.

Once again it is worth noting the large number of Hapag-Lloyd and UASC boxes on deck. In February 2025 when the new Maersk / Hapag-Lloyd Gemini Cooperation comes into effect Hapag-Lloyd will withdraw from THE Alliance. MSC may take up some of the slots but Gemini will form other services some of which will no doubt call in Halifax. New schedules will be posted in December.

At PSA Atlantic Gateway it was an unusual ship for the Ocean Alliance (CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen, OOCL.) 

The CMA CGM Rigoletto is quite a bit smaller than the usual 15,000 TEU ships on the route from Asia via the Cape of Good Hope. (Last port Colombo.)

The CMA CGM Rigoletto comes in at 107,711 gt, 114,004 dwt with a capacity of 9415 TEU including 700 reefers. It would be among the largest ships with all superstructure aft. Most ships of that size have an "island" bridge well forward. It was built in 2006 by Hyundai Ulsan.

Still anchored in Bedford Basin, the tanker Al Reem (see above) awaits a berth at Imperial Oil.

Today the Algoscotia moved back from Pier 26 to Imperial Oil as winds died down sufficiently for safe operation. The Al Reem appears to have quite a bit of product yet to unload.

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Prince Edward Island ferry update

 It was reported today, November 13, that ferry service to Prince Edward Island may resume December 6. The service was suspended after the ferry Confederation alided with the dock at Wood Island PE September 15 and damaged its bow visor and a portion of the hull. The second ferry, Saaremaa I was also removed from service in September with engine malfunctions.

Saarema I, on "loan" (in the form of a bare boat charter) from the Société des Traversiers du Quebec (STQ) until the end of October, instead sailed (on three of its four engines) from Wood Islands on October 27. It is now laid up in Trois-Rivières. A spare ferry in the STQ fleet, it was brought in as a replacement for the Holiday Island which was declared a total loss (and since scrapped) after a fire in 2022. A longer term replacement, the Norwegian Fanafjord, renamed Northumberland is presently undergoing sea trials in Norway and is expected to be in service for the 2025 season. It is supposed to serve until 2028 when a permanent replacement arrives. (I am not betting on that date.)

 Confederation is under repair at the CME Pictou Shipyard, with the bow visor removed and placed under cover. A suggestion that the ship could operate without the visor was not followed up due to the time needed to make a technical application to regulators. (Car deck flooding is a sensitive issue after several notorious sinkings with large loss of life. Authorities and classification Societies are understandably very wary of any possibility of a repeat.) 

Operators Northumberland Ferries Ltd (NFL) have announced that the repairs to the bow visor and the ship's apron, should be completed in time to resume service on December 6. They have also stated that the alision with the wharf was not caused by any mechanical malfunction, contrary to media reports at the time.

(The Caribou, NS to Wood Island, PE service is seasonal and usually closes down during ice season, from January to late May.)

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