Departures follow up.

After yesterday's post the predicted storm passed though over night with high winds and storm surge. Pilotage operations were suspended at some point during the night and not resumed until this morning (January 14). Some arrival and departure times changed as a result.

Among the delayed departures were:

JY Lake resumed its voyage from Romeville, LA to Rotterdam. It anchored in Halifax January 12 probably for some technical adjustments. The 43,968 gt, 81,146 dwt ship was built in 2019 by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangijn, China. It appears to be fully loaded with grain.

The unusual ConRo ship Ramhan sailed from Autoport. This is the second trip to Halifax recently for this ship. The last was on November 12, 2023 and like the last time the ship was carrying no containers. At one point it was scheduled to move to Pier 9C, but remained at Autoport. This time the ship is eastbound from Davisville RI, bound for Gibraltar, Since its previous call here, when it was westbound, the ship went to Altamira, Mexico, Abu Qir, Egypt, Civitavecchia, Italy and Algeciras anchorage (Gibraltar) then directly to Davisville.

As noted in my November post ConRo ships are rare these days, with Grimaldi Lines and Atlantic Container Lines (owned by Grimaldi) among the few companies operating this type of ship. The ship's previous owners Ignazio Messina + Cia SpA work shorter hauls in the Mediterranean and combine containers and various RoRo cargoes.

The last departure of note was the Pacific Trader which was also covered in yesterday's post.

After completing its cargo work at PSA Fairview Cove yesterday afternoon, it made its way to anchor in Bedford Basin, waiting out the rough weather overnight. It is now en route to Kingston, Jamaica.

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Bulk and More Bulk

 Aside from the regular stream of bulk carriers that load gypsum in Halifax, other bulk cargoes are realtively rare. At one time the port handled huge quantities of export grain from the Canadian prairies. When the federal railway subsidy called the Crow Rate [Wikipedia reference] was abolished that commodity dried up, with other ports closer to the source handling the commodity. Halifax's grain elevator was largely idle except for local demand.

In recent years the grain elevator has found alternate products such as wood pellets (exported to Europe as bio fuel) and lately soybeans. There seems to be more demand this year for the soybeans, with a large cargo outbound today on the bulk carrier Athina III [see post from January 2]

The 39,037 gt / 73, 305 dwt ship arrived January 2, and began loading soon after. It spent some time spent at anchor (January 6 - 7) to allow another ship to use the pier.[see previous post]

Its destination on sailing today is Bandar Khomeini, Iran.

The next bulker to load is the Norse Ijmuiden which arrived over night January 9-10 from Philadelphia and anchored Bedford Basin. It is due to move to the grain gallery spouts at Pier 28 tonight (January 12) to begin loading in the morning.

 Built in 2012 by Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (Cebu) Inc, Balamban, Philippines, it is a 26,272 gt, 42,469 dwt ship fitted with four cranes. It also has stanchions to support deck cargoes such as timber. It seems to me a likely candidate to load wood pellets.

Another bulker the JY Lake arrived this evening and anchored in Beford Basin. It is a 45,958 gt, 81,146 dwt ship built in 2019 by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin. Its last port was Romeville, Mississippi, well upstream from New Orleans, which normally handles grain transfers from barges to ships.

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