Halifax Loss, Saint John Gain

 The ports of Halifax and Saint John have been rivals over the years, but Halifax has usually come out on top in terms of winning container lines. However Saint John has upped the ante this year with new facilities and larger cranes. Most recently it was the final official approval of the Canadian Pacific Railway merger with Kansas City Southern. CPR links the Port of Saint John to Montreal through the United States with a much shorter route than Canadian National Railway's route from Halifax to Montreal. Now with the KCS network it reaches into Mexico.

Saint John's terminal operator DP World has had a long standing relationship with THE Alliance (Hapag-Lloyd, ONE, Yang Ming and HMM) and handles THE Alliance's ships in UK ports.

Therefore it was perhaps not a complete surprise when one of THE Alliance's ships on its Atlantic Loop 5 (AL5) service is passing over Halifax this week on its eastbound leg and calling in Saint John instead on April 27.  

NYK Demeter * in Halifax, March 15, 2022.

The AL5 service route has been Southampton, Le Havre, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Halifax, Port Everglades, Cartagena, Panama, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma, Vancouver, Oakland, Los Angles-Long Beach, Panama, Cartagena, Caucedo, Halifax, Southampton.

It seems that the April 21 Halifax call of NYK Rigel may be the last AL5 call at this port. No further AL5 calls are shown on the Port's published schedule. However THE Alliance partner ONE's schedules still show Halifax as the AL5 port. No official announcement seems to have been made.

NYK Demeter was built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan and comes in at 55,487 gt, 65,965 dwt with a container capacity variously reported at 4888 TEU or 4922 TEU.  Sister ships of the Daedalus class on the AL5 service are scheduled at Saint John as follows:

NYK Romulus May 5

NYK Constellation May 13

NYK Meteor May 21

So far it appears that these are all eastbound ships.

NYK Demeter clearing the MacKay bridge, April 23, 2016.

As closest Canadian port to Europe, Halifax has been a logical "first port" for westbound ships on the Great Circle route. The additional sailing time to Saint John has to be balanced with faster railroad service to Quebec, Ontario and the US Mid-west. CP trains run through Maine to Montreal, Toronto, and cross to the US at Fort Erie, ON / Buffalo, NY and run on CSX tracks to Chicago, avoiding some height clearance and other issues in northeast US. However as those are eliminated and with access to KCS tracks, CP may have become the game changer.

The Port of Saint John it must be noted has no bridge clearance or draft restrictions, and given super post Panamax cranes can handle large ships, perhaps on a even footing with Halifax.

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*Note: As a partner with the other Japanese container lines MOL and K-Line, in the joint venture Ocean Network Express (ONE), the NYK Line now charters its ships to ONE and has painted over the NYK Line banners in their ship's sides.

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