Tankers, Containers and Cargo

 Arrivals in the Port of Halifax today (October 12) saw the usual array of ship types. Included were several familiar callers including the cruise ship Emerald Princess (see also October 4) and container ships NYK Daedalus and NYK Remus for PSA Fairview Cove.

An early afternoon arrival was the tanker Alpine Marina [conjurs up a strange mental image] from Saint John for Irving Oil and prior to that from Amsterdam.

An MR2 chemical product tanker of 29,155 gt, 46,162 dwt, it was built in 2010 by Hyundai Mipo in Ulsan. Operator Oxygen Maritime Management Inc is based in Zurich and runs four tankers in total, in this case for the ship owner Tornado Navigation Inc.

The Alpine Marina may not be in port very long, since it appears to be very lighly loaded. [Irving Oil's Saint John refinery is in the midst of a $190 million maintenace "turn around" period, so I expect to see more ships from Amsterdam.]

Arriving from Sines, Portugal on the CANEX 1 service for MSC, the MSC Mexico V tied up at Pier 41-42. [The Nolhan Ava is at Pier 41 using the RoRo ramp - see yesteday's post].

 A veteran carrier, built in 2002 by Hyundai, Ulsan, the 53,453 gt, 66,547 dwt ship has a capacity of 4839 TEU.

It also has a history with Halifax, having arrived here for the first time April 5, 2002 on its maiden voyage. It was then called ZIM Mediterranean and continued to call here for several years. It was the first of a series of six Panamax ships built for ZIM, and flying the Israeli flag.

(I managed to get a picture on its second arrival, in May of the same year.)

In 2014 it was chartered to OOCL and renamed OOCL Mexico and called here June 12, 2016.

 

On that trip it docked at Fairview Cove for what was then the G6 Alliance. As far as I can recall it did not adopt the OOCL colours or hull banner.

In 2016 it was again renamed, this time simply as Mexico, carrying that name until 2022 when it was briefly renamed MSC Mexico before taking the "V" suffix as MSC Mexico V later in 2022.

On its current visit to Halifax the ship is en route to Montreal and is due there October 16. It does not appear to need much in the way of draft reduction, so will be here for only a short stay.

To fill out the berths at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, Eimskip's Skogafoss arrived late in the afternoon and eased in to Pier 42, possibly without tug assistance. (It was a pleasantly calm day,)

A regular on Eimskip's Green Line service since 2011, the ship is one of three ships on the Reykjavik, Halifax, Portland and return (via Argentia) line that also acts as a New England feeder from Halifax for CMA CGM. It is due in Argentia on October 14 and Reykjavik on October 20 on the eastbound leg.

United States flagged ships are a rarity in Halifx, and it was interesting to see the arival of the general cargo ship SLNC Magothy this afernoon.[SLNC stands for Schuyler Line Navigation Company from Annapolis, MD, which names its ships for rivers in Maryland. Its four crane bulker SLNC Severn has been here a couple of times en route to or from Auld's Cove for aggregates.]

The ship was built in 2009 by Qingsham, Wuhan as an ice class tween decker of 15,459 gt, 17,478 dwt, fitted with two 400 tonne and one 120 tonne SWL deck cranes. It can carry 1,009 TEU. Orginally named the Beluga Persuasion, it was renamed Beluga Singapore in 2010 but was then caught up in the fraud-related collapse of the Beluga Shipping, and resulting sell off of its heavy lift fleet. It became Singapore in 2012,  HHL Lisbon in 2012. Norfolk in 2015 and SLNC Magothy in 2019. As a non-Jones Act ship (i.e. not built in the USA) it cannot trade between US ports, but it is given preference over foreign ships for US government cargo. 

I am assuming, since it tied up at Pier 9C that it is here to load a couple of dozen US military Light Tactical Vehicles, (ATVs) that have been arriving by truck over the last few days.
 

Built by Oshkosh, they come in several versions and are used by the US Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy. They have also been exported to other nations.

Lined up at Pier 9C, they would seem to be more easily loaded on a RoRo ship. Since the ship has recently been in Poland, I am also guessing that these vehicles may be headed for Europe. How it is that they would be shipped thtough Halifax is so far unexplainable. (Note the Nova Scotia license plate on the truck trailer above. The tractor was from elsewhere - possibly Ontario.)

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Return of the Prodigal Sun

After yesterday's wintry conditions, it was a return to sunny conditions and better photos today.

The tanker Arctos arrived during all that snow yesterday.

But looked a little clearer today tied up at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal unloading its cargo of refined products loaded in Amsterdam. Irving Oil seems to be importing at least as much fuel for local use as it is producing in Saint John. The vast majority of the product it makes in Saint John is exported to the US.

Arctos is a typical 29,608 grt, 49,999 dwt product of Hyundai, Mipo. It is very new however, delivered in July of this year. Owned by the obscure Libero Panama SA, the ship is managed by Sea World Management and Trading of Liberia (but operating from Greece). Another tanker under its management was found to discharged oil and waste in US waters in 2017 and the company was fined $2.25 mn and the ship's master was jailed for six months.

At Imperial Oil it was possible to get a glimpse of the oddly named Alpine Marina. The ship's name conjures up images of a Swiss yacht club, but is more likely taking a woman's given name.  The ship is another Hyundai Mipo product tanker from 2010, measuring 29,130 grt, 46,162 dwt. It arrived Sunday from Port Neches, TX. Its owners are the improbable Tornado Navigation Inc, and managers Oxygen Maritime Management Inc of Greece. That company manages four ships for Greek owners who are currently embroiled in mortgage and financing issues with creditors . The ship is registered in the Marshal Islands.

The ship was ready to sail late this afternoon and its place at the number 4 dock will be taken by Kitikmeot W

The Canadian flag Kitikmeot W was acquired by Coastal Shipping Ltd earlier this year from Turkish owners and was among the first of a wave of new tankers acquired by Canadian owners recently. Both Algoma Tankers and Desgagnés / Pétro-Nav have also added to their fleets. Now McKeil Marine has announced that they have purchased two Turkish built tankers. Currently named Topaz-T and Turquoise-T.
The pair are trading in the far east, so are unlikely to be seen in Canadian waters before spring.

At Halterm the 9415 TEU CAM CGM Fidelio arrived with the appearance of being fully loaded.

This is good news for the Port of Halifax and the terminal as tenders closed today for Phase 2 of the South End Container Terminal Expansion which will allow for two ship's of this size or larger, to berth at the same time.

Phase 1 - the tender for dredging was awarded to McNally Construction last month, and although the dredge and support plant have been mobilized, work is not expected to start until January.

Phase 2 - the construction and placement of the caissons and pier extension is the larger portion of the project, and although the contract has not been awarded yet, the tender results from today are:

Waterworks Construction Ltd $19,940.00
McNally Construction Ltd $19,059.00

Once construction starts the winter bird life may be disturbed somewhat by all the activity. This suspicious looking loon may be among them.

CMA CGM Fidelio was built in 2006 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan and the ship comes in at 107,898 grt, 113,964 dwt. Although just under the 10,000 TEU threshold it is large enough at 9,415 including 700 reefers to take up a good chunk of the existing berth space at pier 41-42. The new extension will allow two 10,000 TEU ships to tied up at the same time.

East Coast North America port trends indicate that ships of up to 14,000 TEU are now calling, and the worry is that the extension will still not be big enough.

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