Return to normal

 After several days of unsettled weather and resulting delays, with ships at anchor, today, Sunday March 9, ships were once again coming and going.

The CMA CGM Hermes arrived this morning, March 9, at PSA Atlantic Gateway on the Ocean Alliance service from Colombo, via the Cape of Good Hope*. After standing by off Halifax since yesterday during a period of high winds, there was only a light snow to contend with today.

Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Shipbuilding delivered the ship in 2021, one of the five ship Zephyr class. It is rated at 154,995 gt, 150,055 dwt with a capacity of 15,536 TEU. It made its first call here February 9, 2022 .

 

Surprisingly CMA CGM has over taken Maersk as the second largest container shipping line, if the number of ships on order is included. With a capacity of 5.42 million TEU it edged ahead of Maerk's 5.28 million TEU.

 

The coastal tanker Algoscotia arrived March 5 at Imperial Oil then moved to Pier 25 March 6, due to the high winds. 

Yesterday, March 8 the ship returned to Imperial Oil to complete loading and is due to sail tonight for the usual eastern Canada ports.

 

As predicted the CB Pacific moved from anchorage to Irving Oil March 8 and is due to sail tonight for the St.Lawrence River. Its place will be taken by the Acadian.

 

The container / cargo vessel Frisian Octa arrived March 4 and docked at PSA Fairview Cove. The ship has been carrying containers loaded with propane in tanks to Moa, Cuba. It moved later in the same day to anchor in the lower harbour and remains there today.

 

 There has been no word yet if the ship will be making more trips.

 

Atlantic Container Line's Atlantic Sail departed yesterday - not the usual sailing day - probably delayed by weather -  eastbound for Liverpool, UK. 

Since ending the forty-year slot sharing arrangement with Hapag-Lloyd in November, ACL ships are almost exclusively loaded with the rust coloured or white ACL boxes and a few blue boxes from parent company Grimaldi.

 

 

Now with Daylight Saving Time in place, real spring isn't far off.

 

*CMA CGM is among the first lines to resume routing ships through the Suez Canal. Starting in January ships sailing from Asia for European ports resumed use of "the Ditch", However I cannot verify that this ship did so as no reports are available of any calling in points between Colombo and Halifax.

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Two Hours of Activity

 There was quite a bit of activity compressed into a short period of time this afternoon June 23. Between 1715 hrs and 1915 hrs (ADT) there were five ships underway in the harbour.

The first ship was an arrival, the tanker Quartz from Montreal. It is a peculiar arrival as most handysize tankers come to Halifax to deliver refined product to either Irving Oil or Imperial Oil (Exxon mobil). This ship however is in ballast.

Built in 2015 by SPP Shipbuilding Co in Sacheon, it is a 9,767 gt, 49,990 dwt ship, running for Sinokor Petrochemical Co Ltd. It had arrived in Montreal on June 18 from Milford Haven, Wales, site of a large storage and distribution terminal. (The refinery there closed in 2014), and sailed for Halifax June 20. Presumably it unloaded refined product in Montreal.

Inbound soon after was HMCS Glace Bay returning from the Titanic wreck site where it was involved in the search for the submersible "Titan". Glace Bay was carrying a decompression chamber and medical personnel.

The Quartz went to anchor in the lower harbour in the same position as the Eimskip vessel Bakkafoss which got underway as the Glace Bay was passing.

 The Bakkafoss is new to Eimskip, and is on its first trip in a new charter arragement with Ernst Russ. As reported here in March, Eimskip is reducing the number of ships on its transatlantic service from four to three, but by increasing the size of ships will keep its container capacity the same. See: March News

Built in 2009 by Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 11,550 gt, 14,669 dwt ship has a capacity of 1025 TEU, including 231 reefers. Built as JMS Brisbane it was renamed JRSPollux on delivery, becoming Pollux in 2013 and Elbsummer in 2020. It received the name Bakkafoss in May.

It joins Lagarfoss and Vivienne Sheri D on the Green line service, joining Reykjavik, Halifax, Portland, ME, Halifax, Argentia, NL, Reykjavik. (Halifax and Argentia are optional).

 

Bakkafoss headed for PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub to dock at Pier 42 as soon as the EM Kea cleared. One of the St-Laurent 1 service regulars (operated by CMA CGM and Maersk) EM Kea arrived early in the morning and sailed for Bremerhaven.

The final ship was CMA CGM Hermes sailing from Pier 41 for New York on the Columbus JAX service from Singapore and Malaysia via Suez and Tanger Med.

 The CMA CGM Hermes was built in 2021 by Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Shipuilding. It is registered at 154,995 gt, 156,055 dwt with a capacity of 15,000 TEU.

There will be some departures over night, with arrival activity resuming early at daybreak tomorrow morning.

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Big Ships, and various updates

Container lines keep adding bigger ships to their fleets, and placing them on routes that once were served by much smaller ships. This certainly places pressure on the ports and terminals they visit to be able to berth and serve the larger ships efficiently. PSA Halifax is able to handle two "Ultra" class ships (larger than 10,000 TEU, 350m long) at the same time. Thanks to the most recent extension to Pier 42 they can berth the ships, but they do not yet have sufficient cranes to work the ships efficiently. 

One new crane is reported to be on order and there is an option for another. But with build times of up to 18 months, crane manufacturers have backlogs and it will years before the second crane arrives. By that time even larger ships will be calling and there will likely be demand for even more cranes. Certainly if there are two Ultra class ships, or even two moderately large ships in port at the same time, they need to be served quickly or the port loses advantage over other ports.The Port of Saint John will apparently be getting some cranes second hand from Prince Rupert, BC. Terminal operator DP World took delivery of the largest crane in Canada in Prince Rupert in June 2021, and will transfer a pair of older cranes to their newly enlarged Saint John operation.

Today's arrival at PSA Halifax seems to have had a domino effect on other ships.

CMA CGM Hermes arrives this morning February 9, while ZIM Vancouver continues to wait at an outer anchorage (it has been there since at least February 5). The ship used all four harbour tugs to berth, including Atlantic Oak the stern tethered escort tug that met the ship off the pilot station, (in the photo the fourth tug is not visible on ship's starboard side) .
 

CMA CGM Hermes is still very new, just delivered by Chinese builders in October. The 154,995 gt, 156,500 dwt ship, with a capacity of 15,536 TEU, including 1800 reefers, is about 1,000 TEU shy of being the largest container ship to call in Halifax, but at 366m x 51m it still monopolizes the resources (including cranes) of PSA Halifax. 

CMA CGM Hermes was built to Tier III emission standards and has numerous eco-friendly features. Builders are reported by some sources to be Shanghai Jiangnan Chiangxing Shipbuilding Co Ltd, and by others as Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Co (the latter may be the parent company - both are state owned).

PSA Halifax is also expecting the MSC Leigh later in the day, so will be full with its arrival.

The Fairview Cove container facility at the north end was also busy with ONE Majesty at the west berth on THE Alliance's AL5 route. It was joined by the MSC Tianjin (see February 7 post) on the Indus2 run, which had moved from PSA Halifax to Bedford Basin anchorage and moved again today, to Fairview Cove's east berth.

ONE Majesty is the former MOL Majesty, which was renamed and repainted in 2021. Built in 2010 by Mitsubishi, Kobe, it is a 78,316 gt, 79,443 dwt ship with a capacity of 6724 TEU,  including 500 reefers.

It seems that Fairview Cove may have been doing PSA and MSC a favour by allowing the MSC Tianjin to use the east berth, likely for repairs, since it did not appear to be working cargo. There is still no word on whether PSA's takeover of the Fairview lease will be permitted under the competition laws. Cooperation between the two is not unheard of however as the Southend terminal under Halterm operation and now PSA has accommodated ships in the past that were too large to reach Fairview Cove.
 

 MSC Tianjin, as previously reported, arrived off Halifax February 4 and anchored for a time until entering port on February 5. Built in 2005 by Samsung Koje it is a 89,097 gt, 105,528 dwt ship with a capacity of 8063 TEU, including a very large capacity of 1400 reefers. It was built as OOCL Tianjin, renamed GSL Tianjin in 2007 and became CMA CGM Tianjin in 2019.

Note both ships have substantial container lashing bridges at the stern, a feature common on ships built for Pacific Ocean service where large following seas can wash containers overboard.

Updates

Stormy weather again February 8, caused Star Pyxis to drag anchor in Bedford Basin, and a pilot was called to re-anchor the ship. It was re-established somewhat to the south of where it had been. (See previous post).

I like to get pictures of ships from both sides!

Also in Beford Basin Algoma Integrity was taking on cargo at Gold Bond Gypsum.

HMCS Kingston has been exercising in the Basin for the past few days with HMCS Summerside. While the latter was nowhere to be seen today, Kingston was in an unusual anchorage position off Rockingham in an area where large ships don't go.

The lead ship of its class, it was launched by Halifax Shipyard August 12, 1995 and commissioned September 21, 1966.

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