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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