A pair of "new to Halifax" ships arrived today. They are both veteran ships of 17 and 18 years of age however, so are not otherwise new.
First along was MSC Shristi sailing on the Mediterranean Shipping Company's Turkey and Greece service via Sines, Portugal.
Hyundai, Ulsan built the ship in 2005 for service with K-Line as Venice Bridge. It was renamed Baltic East in 2019, then MSC Shristi in 2020 when acquired by MSC. The 54,519 gt, 64,989 dwt ship has a capacity of 4738 TEU, including 374 reefers.
It is one of the many ships purchased by MSC in the last few years that have projected the line into the position as the world's largest container shipping fleet. The most recent figures I have seen show MSC with 775 ships with a capacity of 5.1 million TEU plus 125 more ships on order. Maersk is in second place with 4.1 million TEU capacity and 33 ships on order.
The second new to Halifax arrival is an auto carrier, but not from one of the fleets we usually see here. Lake Taupo belongs to the Eastern Pacific (UK) Shipping fleet of 22 such ships.
Built in 2006 by Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co, it served as Morning Miracle for EUKOR until 2017. The 46,800 gt, 12,600 dwt ship has a modest capacity of 4,902 Car Equivalent Units.
The ship was not shown on the Port's vessel schedule, and unusually for an autocarrier is eastbound from Houston, Veracruz and Jacksonville, sailing from the last port of September 16. The ship also arrived with a slight list to starboard, which makes me wonder if it had an encounter with Hurricane Lee, en route. If so it might be here to re-secure some cargo.
...to be updated if new information is received.
Post Script
I couls see no sign of anything amiss from shofreside, and the ship was happily unloading Volkswagons, presumably made in Mexico.
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