Grand Champion auto carrier

 The auto carrier Grand Champion made a short half day stay at Autoport today, January 24. Its arrival time at the pilot station was 0530 hrs, and allowing for the usual hour and a half or so, it was likely secure alongside around 0700. Its departure order was for 1200 and the ship left quite promptly.

Most auto carriers on the Europe to North America run send a day or more in port, but this ship was not coming from Europe, one of a few recent arrivals from Asia via US east coast ports.

Shin Kurushima Dockyard Co Ltd built the Grand Champion at the Imabari shipyard in 2008. It is a 59,217 gt, 18,262 dwt Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) with a capacity of 6400 cars on nine decks accessed via a 150 tonne capacity RoRo ramp. It also has a small starboard side ramp. 

It also has an unusual spark arrestor cage around its funnel - a feature I don't recall seeing on any other ship, although smoke diverters were installed on some passenger ships to keep smuts off the open passenger decks.

Owner Cido Shipping is a Korean owned company operating from Hong Kong and Japan. Its current fleet consists of about 72 ships of all types, including 37 car carriers - several of which are more than twenty years old. The company made headlines last year when it ordered forty ships from Korean and Chinese shipyards. That number included twelve PCTCs. Most of Cido's PCTCs are on long term charter to the major auto carrier lines such as Grimaldi, MOL and ZIM. This ship was reported chartered to K-Line two years ago and was running from Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal. Most ships are still avoiding the Red Sea.

The Grand Champion sailed from Kanda, Japan December 17, Yokohama December 20, Kawasaki December 21-23, then sailed directly to Panama anchorage January 13 and Brunswick, GA for January 19-20. It seems that Japanese car manufacturers (who are enduring a major sales slump) have opted to bring cars via the Panama Canal instead off-loading at Pacific coast ports. This is a recent change and appears to be the result of fiercely competitive shipping lines offering bargain rates, but also a return to more normal water levels in Panama, which were delaying ships last summer. Ongoing diversions from the Red Sea and Suez Canal may also figure into the routing.

On sailing the ship gave Newark NJ as its destination.

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ONE after ONE but not the news

 Two Ocean Network Express (ONE) ships were seen in Halifax today, January 23 - one sailing and one arriving, but that was hardly newsworthy.

The departing ship was the ONE Falcon on the westbound leg of the THE Alliance's EC5 service. Its last port was Colombo and it arrived in Halifax January 21. It is now en route to New York.

The arriving ship was the ONE Wren on the eastbound leg of the same service from Charleston. 

Both ships are products of the Japan Marine United Shipyard in Kure, Japan, and are sister ships of the JMU 14000 Class, signifying a nominal capacity of 14,000 TEU. The actual rating is14,096 TEU. Each ship has slightly different tonnage figures.

The ONE Falcon (above) was built in 2017 and rates 146,287 gt, 138,907 dwt.  It was originally named NYK Falcon and was renamed in 2020. It sailed under sunny skies around noon time.

The ONE Wren (above) arrived late in the afternoon in a light snow flurry. It was built in 2018 as NYK Wren, and was renamed in 2021 and comes in at 146,409 gt, 139,335 dwt.

The ONE ships are now regulars, and despite their size and brilliant magenta hull paint, they are becoming matter of fact in the Port of Halifax. They no longer attract the sort of attention they received when they began to call here - certainly not the front page of the local newspaper.

That place of prominence was given over today to a small pleasure craft aground on the rocky shore of Ferguson's Cove, opposite Mauger's Beach.

My own photos, not as dramatic, reveal no name or other identification. The Canadian Coast Guard was on site removing fuel and loose gear so I assume the vessel is abandoned.

For the past few weeks there has been an AIS signal from a pleasure craft in the same area, named Obelix but it is no longer showing - that may only be a coincidence.

Removal of the boat will present a challenge, due to shallow water and a steep shore.

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Mix and Match - tankers and box boats

One of the appeals of Halifax harbour to ship watchers is the several types of ships that call in the port. Container ships of various sizes from a variety of shipping lines are the most predominant form of shipping to be seen. There are regular callers - some of which will be calling in the port for their entire working lives of twenty-five years or more - but there are also short term and one-time ships that add variety. 

There are also bulk carriers and tankers on a steady basis with some general cargo ships from time to time, and a regular parade of auto carriers on about a weekly basis.  

There is also a substantial number of support vessels such as tugs, workboats and various marine construction and dredging "floating plant" that work around the harbour.

On the non-commercial side the Royal Canadian Navy has its Atlantic base in Halifax and there are often comings and goings of RCN ships and some NATO visitors. The Canadian Coast Guard and Canadian government research ships, operated the Coast Guard, form a colourful back drop with their red hulls. 

Halifax Regional Municipality operates harbour ferries on two routes across the lower harbour with plans under way for a longer run from Bedford. Halifax Fire and Emergency Services operates a fireboat which can be seen regularly, but is seldom needed to fight a fire.

Adding to all that activity are pleasure craft and tour boats, which operate seasonally, as do their larger passenger carrying kin - cruise ships.

All of the above leads up to the variety of shipping that can be seen on just one day - such as today - January 21.

At the PSA Fairview Cove container terminal ZIM Integrated Shipping Services operates two weekly services. One operates between the west coast of South America to the East Coast of North America, and Halifax is the nothernmost port. Called the ZCX, Colibri Express, it also serves as a feeder to ZIM's hub port of Kingston, Jamaica. 

ZIM also operates the ZCA (ZIM Container Service Atlantic) service from the Mediterranean to the North American east coast. Today's caller on that service is the chartered ship Spyros V on its return visit to Halifax. It was last here November 17, 2024.

The ZCA service makes 13 calls in its long loop from Ashdod to Haifa, Izmir (Aliaga), Piraeus, Genoa, Barcelona and Valencia to Halifax. It is next scheduled to call in New York, then to Norfolk and Savannah before heading back across the Atlantic to Valencia and Barcelona. 

The Spyros V dates from 2011 when it was delivered by Jiangsu New Yangzijiang Shipyard in Jingjiang, China, as theBella Schulte. In 2017 it was acquired by current owner Technomar Shipping Inc of Athens. The 40,542 gt, 49,891 dwt ship has a capacity of 4250 TEU.

(Note the larger number of Hapag-Lloyd containers on deck on this trip. Perhaps a sign of things to come as Hapag-Lloyd amd Maersk re-align their services under a new joint venture called the Gemini Cooperation.)

At PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub in the south end of the port, the Mediterranean Shipping company's MSC Tamara was at Pier 42 - a regular caller it is serving MSC's Med Canadian route from  Halifax and Montreal. 

At Pier 41 it was a "two chairs - no waiting" situation as the departing ONE Cygnus was soon replaced by the arriving sister ship ONE Falcon.

The outbound ONE Cygnus is accompanied by two tugs, as tethered escorts.

 

Ships of this class are regular callers now on THE alliance's Asia - North America service, arriving from Colombo, via the Cape of Good Hope. But that may change next month as Hapag-Lloyd withdraws from THE Alliance. (Another ship with a large number of Hapag-Lloyd and UASC boxes on deck.) The ship measures 146,694 gt, 138,611 dwt and has a capacity of 14,026 TEU, and was built by Japan Marine United in 2019.

There are tankers in and out of Halifax on a nearly daily basis as both Imperial Oil and Irving Oil have large storage and distribution depots. Today at Irving Oil it was the East Coast while at Imperial Oil the PS Augusta was still discharging after its arrival Sunday January 19 from Antwerp, Belgium.

Ships of this size, around 50,000 dwt are the most common type of tanker and are seen world wide. This one was built in 2011 by STX Shipbuilding Co in Jinhae, South Korea, and comes in at 29,717 gt, 51,063 dwt. It was built as Gold Point and was erenamed PS Augusta in 2020.

 

Another tanker was also in Halifax, but not at one of the fuel terminals. Instead the Sten Aurora was tied up at Pier 9C to take on fuel for its own use. Irving Oil delivered fuel to the ship by truck.

 

Largely concealed from view by a large number of wind turbine towers, the refueling trucks are not visible.

 

The ship was built in 2007 by the Jiangnan Shipbuilding Group at the Qiuxin shipyard in Shanghai. It is a 11,943 gt, 16,596 dwt ship, rated as Ice Class 1A with polymer lined tanks for chemicals. Its most recent routing is more specific to a chemical carrier. It was in Sarnia December 2 to 4 then called in Quebec City, New York, New Orleans and Houston December 31. It then returned to New Orleans and sailed January 2 directly to Port Alfred (La Baie), QC, arriving January 16. There is a demand for a variety of chemicals to support the aluminum and the biomaterials industries in the Saguenay region.

The ship is due to sail this evening for Taft, Louisiana, site of large Mosaic and Dow / Union Carbide chemical plants about 30 miles upstream of New Orleans..

 

The berth at Piet 9C was only vacated yesterday by the general cargo ship Nord Ling, which moved out to anchor in Bedford Basin to make room.

 

Since arriving January 6 [qv] the ship has been fitted with fiberoptic cable racks. If that work is complete, the ship may be anchored for a while waiting its turn to go the Portsmouth, NH to load the cable.
 

Adding to the colourful activity in the harbour the CCGS Sir William Alexander has been running in and out port on its winter buoy program, which involves removing buoys from ice prone areas. As a multi-tasked ship, it also provides icebreaking assistance, Search and Rescue standby and patrol.

 

On arrival January 20 the ship had a number of buoys on deck to be taken ashore for maintenance and storage until spring.

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Titania at Autoport

 The Wallenius Wilhelmsen auto carrier Titania is today's (January 20) caller at Autoport, on the North Europe to North America service from Bremerhaven, Zeebrugge and Southampton.

 Unlike the subjects of Saturday's post (January 18: Your Roots are Showing) the ship's Wilhelm Wilhelmsen origin is apparent only in the "T" name, the first initial of all Wilhelmsen ships. Its orginal Wilhelmsen red/orange hull colour has long since been replaced with the teal over gray of the combined fleet with Wallenius Lines. That merger occured in 1999 and this ship has always operated for Wallenius Wilhelmsen. It was not until a late 2016 re-organization that the two lines began to integrate their operations under the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean brand and to adopt a common colour scheme.

The Titania was built in 2011 by Daewoo Shipbuilding + Marine Engineering Co in Okpo. The 74,255 gt, 31,143 dwt ship has a carrying capacity of 7620 RT43 sze cars. It is equipped with a 320 tonne capacity stern ramp and a smaller starboard side ramp.

 

The Titiania was wearing the traditonal Wilhelmsen hull colour and funnel marking when it called in Halifax June 27, 2016.

 

The ship will now sail for US ports, starting with Baltimore. One has to wonder how the imposition of substantial duties on auto imports to the US will effect the operations of shipping lines such as Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean.  

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Your Roots are Showing

 When ships change owners they often change names, funnel markings and other identifiers, but it is a major expense to change hull colours. That change is generally made during a regular drydocking, which, short of some accident or malfunction, only occurs every five years. Even then if the paint is in good condition, perhaps it will get a touch up rather than a change of colour. It is therefore not unheard of for ships to go ten years before hull repainting.

Today, January 18, there was a curious occurence in Halifax relating to two ships from different owners, docking at adjacent berths. CMA CGM Veracruz arrived early in the morning from Montreal on MSC's Canada Express service. It tied up at Pier 42, PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub but was hard to see thanks to a forest of cranes.

The MSC Veracruz was built in 2005 by Hanjing Heavy Industry and Construction Co. A 54,758 gt, 72,717 dwt ship it has a capacity of 5060 TEU.  The fore part of the ship was built at the Pusan yard and joined to the stern at the Ulsan yard. Originally named the Margit Rickmers for the long time Hamburg owners, it was chartered out as the Maersk Dhaka from 2005 to 2010 then reverted to Margit Rickmers until 2016 when it was renamed ANL Werrivee until 2017. 

In 2017 the Rickmers Group became insolvent. The 130 ship fleet was operated by receivers. and this ship reverted to Margit Rickmers again. It was sold that year and renamed MP The Edelman. In 2021 MSC swept up the ship along with numerous others in its fleet expansion phase, and it became MSC Veracruz. 

When the ship worked for Maersk it was repainted in their distinctive blue colour, but was returned to the traditional Rickmers green in 2010 and carried that until the sale in 2017 when it appeared in black. It still carries the black hull now, which is typical of MSC ships.

The noon time arrival today was the CMA CGM Missouri on the Ocean Alliance service from Singapore (apparently skipping Colombo) via the Cape of Good Hope.

Uncharacteristically the French Line ship has a green hull, certainly indicative of a Rickmers history. It seems that the ship was at least ordered by Rickmers, but construction was completed in 2016 by STX Offshore Shipbuilding in Jinhae for unidentifiable owners, but with the name CMA CGM Missouri.

It is a 102,931 gt, 115,600 dwt ship with a capacity of 9220 TEU. Actual CMA CGM ownership was not listed until 2024, and the ship still has the Rickmers green hull paint. It is likely to carry that colour until the next drydocking, which is due in March 2026.

 Rickmers did emerge to a degree from insolvency, but was a shadow of its former self. The five generation family owned company traced its roots to the 1830s. A Hamburg landmark is the barque Rickmer Rickmers now a popular tourist attraction, and yes, with a green hull.

Built in 1896 by the Rickmers shipyard in Bremerhaven, the square rigger has a notable history, summed up on its Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickmer_Rickmers 

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IT Intrepid to the rescue

 A fast track application was made to the Canadian Transportation Agency on January 14 for a temporary coasting license for IT International Telecom's cable ship IT Intrepid. The ship is needed to replace two damaged fibreoptic cables that run between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. 

Normally it requires a month to process and grant a temporary coasting license but due to the importance of these cables, IT International is asking for quicker service in order to mobilize starting January 17 and to begin work on January 31.

One cable, belonging to Bell-Aliant runs 134 km from Searston By, NL to Aspy Bay, NS, was severed approximately December 23. The other, belonging to Eastlink, runs 190 kms from Rose Blanche, NL to New Victoria, NS and was broken about January 10.  It appears that both must be replaced in their entirety, and in a continous operation that buries the cable in a trench using a special Remotely Operated Vessel plough.

Today, January 15, the IT Intrepid moved to Bedford Basin for Dynamic Positioning trials, presumably in preparation for the work.

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MSC goes alone and big small(er) moves

 The Mediterranean Shipping Company is now the world's largest container shipping company and quite likely the Port of  Halifax's largest customer. With nearly daily arrivals, it is hard to keep track of all the ships that come and go. Today's (January 14) arrival however seems to be a first time visit, with this name. MSC Silvana VIII added the the Roman numeral "VIII" in 2024 to signify its capacity classification in thousands of TEUs. Whereas with most MSC ships the Roman numeral indicates the upper limit of  capacity, this one seems to be the lower threshold as most sources indicate a capacity of 8400 TEU. It was built as simply MSC Silvana, and carried that name from new in 2006, and it was under that name that it called in Halifax in November 2021.

 On arrival today it was met by three tugs (one not visible in photo) but all were close tethered, and none was acting as stern escort.

As of February MSC will have removed itself from the 2M Alliance with Maesk and will return to being a stand alone operation. Already the evidence is there as not a single container on deck was not either MSC (mostly putty colour, but some rusty red) or a rental / leasing box. Altough MSC has been said to pick up some slack from Hapag-Lloyd's simultaneous withdawal from the THE Alliance, it is not obvious here, at least yet.

MSC Silvana was built by Daewoo Ship Building + Marine Engineering in Geoje in 2006, and is rated at 94,489 gt, 128,560 dwt and is running on the Indus Express direct from Colombo via the Cape of Good Hope.

Three ships made moves or departed the harbour today, and they ranged in size from relatively large to relatively small.

The largest ship was the bulker Ceci which completed loading its soy cargo at Pier 28 and moved out to harbour anchorage last night, January 13. 

The ship arrived from Quebec City (Sillery specifically) January 9, and was due to sail in the late afternoon today to a port as yet to be designated. but likely Bandar Khomeni, Iran. [see previous post for ship details.]

This morning the tanker Bosporos moved from Nova Scotia Power Corporation's Tuft's Cove power plant to Pier 28, occupying the berth vacated by Ceci. [see also previous posts]

There does not seem to be a reason for the Bosporos to move to Pier 28 - it was certainly not to take cargo - and I did not see any re-fueling trucks on the pier. Perhaps it was to take on stores, which would have been difficult at NSP. It is due to sail this evening too.

The smallest ship to move today was the coastal tanker Algoscotia one of the most frequent callers of the Algoma Tankers' fleet. It moved from Pier 9C- where it had some tank cleaning (possibly after carrying black oil) - to Imperial Oil's number three dock to load refined product. 

The senior member of the Algoma Tankers fleet - it was built in 2004 - it is continues to soldier on, with an upgraded ballast water system fitted last year. It regular route is Halifax to Sydney, Corner Brook and Sept-Iles.

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