Saturday, November 5, 2022

New for MSC

 Two "new to Halifax" ships for the Mediterranean Shipping Company in two days - not unusual for the largest shipping company in the world, which keeps acquiring ships. By one recent account, it has bought 250 ships since August 2020. The company now has a capacity of 4.57 million TEU!

MSC Jersey arrived on Friday, November 4, and instead of berthing at the Southend terminal, PSA directed the ship to its Fairview Cove facility.

Built in 2014 by Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding Co in Zhoushan it is a 47,873 gt, 60,550 dwt vessel with a capacity of 4896 TEU including 750 reefers. It was built as the Sea Violet but was renamed Sapphire on delivery. In 2015 it became Hammonia Sapphire, then X-Press Jersey in 2019. In November 2021 it became MSC Jersey under MSC management.

It is sailing on MSC's Canex 1 service and is en route to Montreal from the Mediterranean via Sines, Portugal.

MSC Mattina arrived Saturday November 5 on the Canex2 service, from Montreal to top up. It docked at PSA's Atlantic Hub, Southend terminal. 

Hyundai Mipo built the ship in Ulsan in 2007. Initially named Ital Mattina it soon took the name E.R.Nelson which it carried until 2018 when it became the Mattina. It was added to MSC's fleet and renamed MSC Mattina in 2021. The 42,484 gt, 53,644 dwt ship has a capacity of 4363 TEU including 600 reefers.

With such a huge fleet MSC has a "ship for every occasion" and can match ships to routes for maximum efficiency. However the challenge of draft restrictions on the St.Lawrence River means that ships come to Halifax to top up or lighter off cargo from efficient ocean draft. It still makes sense for the ships to use Montreal as the terminal port (where all containeers are off loaded and loaded) with Halifax as a waypoint only.

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