Two by Two

 Two PCTCs

The first arrival in Halifax this morning, September 3, was the Pure Car and Truck Carrier Themis, from the usual ports of Zeebrugge, Bremerhaven and Southampton.  A Wilhelmsen ship, it is operating on the transatlantic service of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean. It tied up at Pier 9C and unloaded a vast array of mining, agricultural, forestry and construction equipment and machinery.

The ship was built by Hyundai Samho in 2016, and is a 75,223 gt, 23,786 dwt vessel with a capacity of 8,000 RT43 cars. It has a 320 tonne stern ramp, and is exhaust gas scrubber equipped. It will move to Autoport tomorow to offload cars.

Later in the morning another autocarrier arrived and went directly to Autoport.     

The Violet Ace was here as recently as July 26. Since then the ship has called in Houston August 2-3, Veracruz August 6-8, and Emden August 25-26. As noted in the July post, it is a somewhat smaller PCTC of 49,708 gt, 13,370 dwt but with a respectable capacity of 5,000 CEU. It was built in 2011 by Ha Long Shipbuilding Co in Ha Long, Vietnam.

 

Two Container Ships

Sailing again late this afternoon for Davisville, RI, the ship passed the Humen Bridge which has been anchored offshore since September 1. Another container ship MSC Esthi had also been anchored offshore, but it moved in to PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway this morning (sorry no photo except yesterday's silhouette in the background).

Two Tankers

An unusual morning arrival was the crude oil tanker Sonangol Namibe.

 The ship tied up at Pier 27-28 to take on bunker fuel.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co, Okpo, delivered the 83,469 gt, 158,425 dwt ship in 2007. The Sonangol Group is the multi-faceted state owned oil company of Angola. They have partnered with Stena to operate the Stena Sonangol pool of twenty-one Suezmax tankers.

 Sonangol Namibe sailed from Ras Tanura July 6, and stopped in Walvis Bay anchorage, Namibia, July 31 and the Girassol Terminal in Angola August 9-10. It then proceeded to Point Tupper, NS, anchoring August 29 then moving to the Everwind Terminal (formerly NuStar) August 31 to September 1. It presumably offloaded a storage cargo in Point Tupper.

On sailing this afternoon for New York the ship did not appear to be carrying much if any cargo. 

Later tonight the Bangladesh flag product tanker Banglar Agrajatra (see yesterday's post) will move from Irving Oil's Woodside terminal to Pier 27-28, also to take on bunker fuel, delivered to the ship by truck. 

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First timer

 What I believe to be the first ship to call in Halifax flying the flag of Bangladesh arrived this morning, September 2. Banglar Agrajatra is a tanker operated by the state owned Bangladesh Shipping Corp.

Built in 2019 by Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding in Jingjiang, China, it is a 24,167 gt, 38,867 dwt vessel in the Mid Range 1 (MR1) size classification (35,000 to 44,999 dwt). Foreign flag product tankers calling in Halifax are usually MR2 class (45,000 to 54,999 dwt).

Bangladesh, located to the east of India on the Bay of Bengal, is better known for its shipbreaking, but it has had a small merchant fleet since 1972 (shortly after it became independant from Pakistan). The current fleet stands at about eight ships, three of which are product tankers. (This ship's name - roughly translated from Bengali, means Bengal Advance- the country name Bangladesh means land of Bengal).

Banglar Agrajutra tied up at Irving Oil's terminal in Woodside, to deliver refined product loaded in Amsterdam. If past patterns are any guide, it will likely unload some cargo here then proceed to Saint John to unload the rest.

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