Changes - for now, and Changes - to come

 Shipping schedules are often notated "subject to change" and as per yesterday's post that is sometimes due to labour issues, but may also be a result of the re-alignment of alliances, or simply more efficienct use of resources.

The latter two may be at the root of recent and future changes in ZIM schedules (ZIM Integrated Shipping Services). Since 2018 ZIM has operated a Canada Feeder Express CFX linking Halifax to New York and Kingston, Jamaica. Feeder ships connect to ZIM's weekly transatlantic service, ZCA, in Halifax. Recently however the CFX service appears to have been merged with the ZCX Colibri Xpress. That line, which started up in early 2023 connects to the west coast of South America from Kingston, Jamaica and extends up the US east coast as far north as Philadelphia.

By extending the Colibri Xpress to New York and Halifax, and eliminating the CFX, ZIM appears to have made more efficient use of ships, and as such sees the return of a familiar ship which was one of the orginal CFX callers in 2018.

AS Felicia arrived yesterday from the South American west coast, and via New York and Philadelphia, to Halifax. It sailed this afternoon, November 6 for Kingston. 

Built in 2006 by Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding Co Ltd in Zhoushan, with tonnages of 15,375 grt, 18,291 dwt, it has a capacity of 1296 TEU, including 390 reefers, and has two 45 tonne cranes. It was launched as Medocean but entered service as EWL Caribbean. In 2007 it became APL Managua and in 2014 Medocean and in 2015 AS Felicia. Halifax is an excellent interchange/transshipment port as it has few if any delays at berths, lots of space for short term storage and some locally generated business.

More changes are underway for ZIM's transatlantic services effective February 2025. These have been brought about by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd's Gemini Cooperation. The ZCA service, a major user of the Port of Halifax, which runs from the Mediterranean, has a long standing slot charter agreement with Hapag-Loyd. That appears likely to continue, and will adjusted to run directly from Livorno to Halifax. That likely means changes to the current port rotation: Mersin - Ashdod - Haifa - Izmir - Piraeus - Genoa - Barcelona - Valencia - Halifax - New York - Norfolk - Savannah - Valencia - Barcelona - Mersin. 

As noted yesterday, the Mediterranean Shipping Company, MSC, is dealing with the strike of longshore workers in Montreal.  Today, November 6, a ship that would not normally call in Halifax made an "unscheduled" call. [Unscheduled meaning, not on the normal port rotation.] MSC Celine works the Canada Gulf Bridge service from Montreal via CornerBrook to Freeport, Bahamas and ports in Mexico. It is en route from CornerBrrok to Freeport.

 

Originally called Westerdiep is was renamed MSC Mendoza when it entered service in 2007 upon delivery from Stocznia Gdynia in Poland. It reverted to Westerdiep from 2009 to 2015 when it became MSC Celine. It is a 32,060 gt, 39,083 dwt ship with a capacity of 2732 TEU. It appears to have a substantial number of reefer plugs judging by the number of white boxes on deck.

The ship exhibits some distintive features. One is the sloped transom stern, typical of some Polish designed ships.

The other is the large exhaust gas scrubber housing "disguised" (not very successfully) as a funnel and offset to the port side. The ship obviously stops scrubbing when it needs more power.

Scrubbers are supposed to remove particulate matter and noxious gasses referred to as NOX and SOX, and to emit only water vapour. Ships burning MDO (marine diesel oil) often emit volumes of black smoke after the engine has been idling (as it does when the ship is slowing). If the ship is equipped to burn IMO 2020 fuel (0.05% cap on sulfur content) it does not need a scrubber.

Some scrubbers remove the dirty components and store them for future disposal. These are called closed loop scrubbers. However others merely wash the material out of the exhaust stream and flush it overboard. These are called open loop scrubbers, and are banned in many ports. Closed loop will also likely be banned in the next few years. Scrubbers were intended as a short term solution as an alternative to converting engines to burn compliant low sulfur fuel. 

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