Cars and More Cars

 Autoport has hosted ships for two days in a row and expects another tomorrow. The inventory of cars at the facility has appeared thin lately, so this will allow them to build up their inventory of imports. Autoport is owned by CNRail and customarily holds cars and light trucks in storage until they are called for by dealers, then sends them out by truck or train. CN also owns at least one of the large truck companies that specializes in auto transport.

Yesterday, January 17 it was the 7,194 CEU Don Pasquale, a regular caller on Wallenius Wilhelmsen's transatlantic loop. It called here in June, August and October of 2023. When it completed offloading at Autoport yesterday and was moving to Pier 9C to offload RoRo cargo, the next auto carrier, Lake Wanaka was making its way inbound.

 Don Pasquale (left) exits Eastern Passage with Lake Wanaka taking a wide turn round Ives Knoll off PSA Halifax.

Lake Wanaka. a smaller ship with a capacity of 4902 CEU has also been here before, most recently in March and August 2023, and is apparently dedicated to carrying Volkswagen products, loaded in Emden, Germany. The ship remained alongside Autoport over night and sailed late this morning heading for Jacksonville, FL.

A third auto carrier, the 6500 CEU SFL Composer is drifting offshore and is due tomorrow, January 19. It is also arriving from Emden, Volkswagen's export port.

European auto makers are experiencing production problems due to parts shortages from Asia. Some manufacturers have shut down completely as shipments through the Red Sea / Suez route have been delayed or curtailed due to the hostilities. It is therefore inevitable that there will be noticeable shortages of some kinds of cars in North America.

China on the other hand is building new auto carrying ships as it shifts to building entire automobiles. For example Ford is building some new Lincoln models in China for the North American market. With assembly closer to the component manufacturers some of the recent "supply chain" issues may be resolved. 

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The Ripple Effect, and other news

 Work appears to be completed on relocating one of the existing cranes at PSA Halifax. The Super Post Panamax crane dubbbed "Max5", was repositioned by loading it back onto the Zhen Hua 23, then off loading it further north (by passing two other cranes) and adjacent to the two newest cranes which have just been delivered from the same ship.

The existing crane (with boom up in the photo) will be "plug and play" I assume. In other words it will be ready to run in short order. The two newest cranes - left in photo - are in the commisssioning process and may be operational in December or January.

(The green cranes in the photo are still aboard the ship Zhen Hua 23 and are not for Halifax. They are en route to the PSA terminal in Sines, Portugal.)

With the new cranes the Port expects to be able to handle 20,000 TEU ships efficiently. Although no ships of that size currently call on east coast North America, their arrival is inevitable as lines look for efficiencies of scale.
 

Ripple 1

Because the Pier 41 berth was occupied with this crane move, the container ship ONE Falcon went to anchorage number one, just off the South End Container Terminal. The 14,026 TEU ship will move alongside tonight when Zhen Hua 23 sails.

Dating from 2017 when it was delivered by Japan Marine United in Kure as NYK Falcon, the ship was renamed in 2020 by NYK Lines, a partner in Ocean Network Express along with the other Japanese container lines. ONE is a member of THE Alliance and the ship is operating on its EC5 service.

Ripple 2

With ONE Falcon occupying number one anchorage, and impeding the usual east channel, the Oceanex Sanderling passed west of George's Island en route to Bedford Basin. The ship is arriving on its weekly route from St.John's, NL.

It will remain at anchor in Bedford Basin until the sailing later this evening of Atlantic Sail frees up the west berth at PSA Fairview Cove.

Ripple 3

The presence of ONE Falcon in number one anchorage also obliged the arriving autocarrier Lake Wanaka to pass west of George's Island then turn, north of the island, then head back east of the island to make its approach to Eastern Passage and Autoport.

The line boat Roseway makes its way to Autoport to take the ship's head lines out to a mooring buoy.

The 47,168 gt, 12,272 dwt autocarrier has become a regular in Halifax (it was last here October 17) working as it does for Volkswagen sailing out of Emden, Germany. Built in 2008 as Triumph by Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co, it has a capacity of 4902 CEU. It became Lake Wanaka in 2019. The ship is equipped with an exhaust gas scrubber, housed aft of the usual funnel.

Once the ship neared the Autoport jetty, the tugs turned it to back in alongside. The ship is equipped with a side ramp, which is never used in Halifax, instead using the large stern ramp.

Ripple 4

Adnittedly Ripple 4 effected only me, but what the ONE Falcon did was to (partly) block my customary view of the tanker at Imperial Oil's Number 3 dock.

The Torm Agnes arrived yesterday from Antwerp with a cargo of refined products. A member of the Danish Torm A/S fleet (although apparently re-finanaced and leased back) the ship wears the unique burnt orange painted superstructure and the Torm name and flag on the hull. Built by Guangzhou International, in Guangzhou, in 2011 it is listed at 30,302 gt, 49,999 dwt. That is a rather larger than usual gross tonnage, perhaps as the result of roomier accommodation than the run of the mill MidRange tanker.

The five decks of superstructure (one more than the usual) are more visible from aft.

Non-Ripple

Totally unrelated to the crane delivery issue, was the departure of the cargo ship Franbo Lohas from Pier 9B. Tugs were able to turn the ship right off the berth in the Narrows and so to head it for sea.

This was the ship's third call in Halifax in two years. First in March 2022 and again just a year ago in November 2022. This time it arrived November 2 from Oman. As it did on the last calls, it loaded steel racks for carrying fibreoptic cable. When it sailed today it gave Portsmouth,NH as destination, where it will load another cargo of the cable manaufactured at SubCom's factory in Newington (formerly Tyco and before than Simplex Wire and Cable).

One of ten sister ships built by Honda Heavy Industries (unrelated to the car) in Saiki, Japan for Thorco A/S of Denmark. It was named Thorco Lohas from 2016 to 2021when some of the ships were sold to Franbo Lines of Taiwan and renamed. The 13,110 gt, 16,966 dwt ship has box shaped holds and two 50 tonne SWL cranes. Other ships of the Thorco "L" class have also been fitted with cable racks in Halifax.

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A Summer Sunday Summary

 There was a fair amount of activity in the harbour today (Aunday, August 28), including an abundance of pleasure craft. The last weekend before Labour Day weekend (which marks the traditional end of summer) is always a busy one for boaters - weather permitting. And this weekend weather was nearly perfect, with warm temperatures, light winds and lots of sun. That also meant ideal conditions for ship watching.

The Lake Wanaka arrived early this morning at Autoport from Emden, and sailed this afternoon for Davisville, RI weaving its way through small craft without incident.

 The Lake Wanaka was here March 30 of this year, and Shipfax reported its unusual movements and technical details. The 46,800 gt, 12,272 dwt PCTC was built in 2008 by Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co and has a capacity of 4902 CEU. The ship sailed under the name Triumph until 2019 when it was renamed after a lake in New Zealand. Since new it has been managed by Eastern Pacific Shipping UK, a 200 ship strong operator for many owners - some with uninformative corporate names.

Following it in was the Vayenga Maersk from Antwerp en route to Montreal, and docking at Pier 42, PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway (a.k.a. the southend terminal).

Shortly afterwards its route mate CMA CGM Montreal arrived at mid-berth Pier 41-42 from Montreal en route to Europe. The two ships (along with EM Kea and Vistula Maersk) operate the weekly joint Maersk/CMA CGM St.Lawrence service, and usually call in Halifax to top up (eastbound) or lighten (westbound) because of St.Lawrence River draft restrictions. Because of the many containers on the pier the CMA CGM Montreal was hidden from view.

Another arrival this morning was the Canadian tanker Algoterra from Sarnia, ON, docking at Imperial Oil, number 3 dock.(It is the only operational dock at Imperial Oil - docks 4 and 5 are still there but not in use. Docks 1 and 2 were demolished many years ago.)

Ships usually dock starboard side to at the oil dock (bows north) but for some reason Algoterra tied up bows south- thus an unusual photo angle. The harbour tour boat Silva of Halifax is just rounding George's Island on one of its regular outings with a full deckload (of people).

Algoma ships are usually painted a very dark blue, but Algoterra is the exception to the rule. It had very nice paint from original owners Knutsen Produkt Tanker of Norway when it was acquired in 2019, so presumably Algoma Tankers saw no reason to replace a perfectly good coating. The ship was built in 2010 by Jiangnan, Shanghai as Louise Knutsen. The 11,889 gt, 16,512 dwt ship was renamed Louise K. briefly in 2019 for the delivery trip to Canada. The paint is looking a bit faded now, but its next class renewal survey and drydocking is not due until March 2025 so it may not see new paint until then.

Amongst today's departures was the Contship Leo sailing for Kingston, Jamaica, the sole ship on ZIM's Canada Feeder Express service, CFX. The route also includes New York northbound.

 Contship Leo was built in 2008 by China Commerce Group Kouan Shipbuilding as Vega Saturn. It became CFS Paceno in 2016 and took on its current name in 2020. The 9957 gt, 13,803 dwt ship has a container capacity of 1118 TEU and carries two 45 tonne cranes.

The giant container ship CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt sailed early this morning from the southend terminal. Shipfax was not on  scene this time, but covered the ship on a previous visit on December 27, 2021.

There was one more container ship to deal with, but at the other end of the size scale at 354 TEU (including 100 reefer plugs). The 3871 gt, 3650 dwt Vantage which has been sailing for Eimskip, arrived from Reykjavik on Friday August 26. It was to have sailed that evening, but remained in port overnight and moved Saturday morning to Pier 36. Although that pier is within the PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway facility, it is not served by a container crane, so the ship cannot be working cargo. 

The ship started calling here June 11, 2022 on Eimskip's Green Line from Iceland to Argentia, NL, Halifax and Portland, ME. It is currently not showing on any future Green Line schedules, but appears to be carrying a deck load. (Those are just reflections on the bow - not damage.)

Despite the stacks of Tropical Shipping boxes on the dock, the Vantage is sailing for the Icelandic company Eimskip (and from the opposite direction).

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Back to Busy - amended

 

After yesterday's big visitor at PSA Halifax's Atlantic Hub, CMA CGM Magellan (13,880 TEU - sorry no photo) the facility was busy again today, with the Oceanex Connaigra in for Newfoundland cargo. While Oceanex Sanderling is in Amsterdam for refit the Connaigra provides RoRo service once every two weeks, as it alternates with Ocean Avalon (no RoRo) on the Montreal / St.John's and Halifax / St.John's routes. There were a lot of truck trailers waiting for the ship this time, in addition to the usual containers. [Oceanex is no longer showing a June 15 return to service of Oceanex Sanderling in its on-line schedule - it now shows July 8 as Voyage 1 from Halifax to St.John's.]

Oceanex carries 53 foot containers aboard ship - a very rare feature.

The PSA Atlantic Hub was also expecting the arrival of MSC Shanghai on an "unscheduled call", so they diverted the MSC Sao Paulo to Fairview Cove, now also under PSA management.

MSC Sao Paulo, built in 1998 by Hyundai, Ulsan, 53,324 gt, 63,537 dwt, has a capacity of 4688 TEU. It was built as CSAV Pyrenees and carried the name Pohang briefly in 2013 (under Laiesz ownership, the once famous "Flying P" line of square riggers) until adopting its current name. The ship serves MSC's Canada Express I service from Italy and is inbound from Gioia Tauro. After off loading some containers to reduce draft, it will head for Montreal. 

Whether these drop offs and top ups will move to Fairview Cove now that both terminals are under common management has not been announced. This may be a once only.

 

The other expected MSC ship arrived in late afternoon, and anchored for CFIA inspection. It is expected to move alongside early this evening.

 

MSC Shanghai was renamed just last year after nearly twenty years as ZIM Shanghai. (The ZIM banner is still visible on the ship's side. Built by Hyundai Ulsan in 2002 it is a 53,453 gt, 66,685 dwt vessel with a capacity of 4839 TEU. It arrived from Malaga, Spain, so may be a "sweeper" or an "extra" to meet added demand. The ship was once a regular caller in Halfax as ZIM Shanghai. See what it looked like June 18, 2011, here: Shipfax 2011

Amendment:The ship is apparenelt on the new service from Turkey and Greece.

 

 

PSA was not the only busy operator today, as Autoport was going full out. Morning Lena (see yesterday's post) sailed late this morning, and its place was taken almost immediately by Supreme Ace.

Supreme Ace took a big loop around number one anchorage to make room for Morning Lena (in the background) to clear Eastern Passage.

The ship was built in 2011 by Minami-Nippon in Shitane and is 59,022 gt, 18,384 dwt. In a reversal of the usual autocarrier routing it arrived from Davisville, RI and sailed for Emden, Germany. It took another loop through number one anchorage outbound to clear the MSC Shanghai.

 

At the same time it made a neat passing arrangement with Oceanex Connaigra which was on its way to occupy the Autoport berth.

 

As if that were not enough business for Autoport, another ship was "lurking" offshore waiting its turn. Lake Wanaka is due tomorrow.

 

Bonus Feature

Now for a complete change of pace: Today was moving day for Sackville, Canada's Naval War Memorial. Each year,  just before the Victoria Day weekend, Sackville moves from its winter berth at HMC Dockyard to Sackville Landing where it is open to the public in the summer. No longer self-propelled, the World War II corvette relies on Dockyard tugs to make the move, which usually involves a short "tour" of the harbour around George's Island.

CNAV Glenevis provided the power, and Listerville stood by for mooring as the last remaining World War II corvette made tthe annual move. Another Dockyard craft, YDT-325 Guardian accompanied the procession.

 

Also on the move this morning was the RCN sailing ketch HMCS Oriole.

 

It has the honour of being the oldest vessel in commission in the RCN (and the longest serving). Built in 1921 it also saw naval service in World War II. It was transferred back to Halifax from the west coast in 2018.

One Last Word

Today was the first really hot day this spring, with temperatures rocketing up to the 20s C (70s F). This brought out the "yachtsmen" - the bane of harbour pilots and other mariners.

The outbound tanker Algoscotia sounded five warning blasts, twice, to warn this sailor to clear the track, but I am not sure it did any good. The sailor blithely kept his course, coming about only after the tanker had passed by. 

Algoscotia had delivered a cargo from Imperial Oil's refinery in Nanticoke, ON. Nevertheless we will be paying world price for fuel at the pumps in Halifax: $190.9 / liter, but likely to go up again tomorrow.

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Directing traffic - Comings and Goings

 Ships arrive and depart regularly from Halifax harbour, but due to the tight channels and restricted space in some parts of the main harbour careful orchestration is sometimes needed to keep ships safely apart. With all the comings and goings today, March 30, the harbour pilots had to do something that is rarely seen. With two ships wanting to be in the same place at about the same time, one of the ships took an unusual route.

The arriving ship was the MSC Antigua on MSC's Indus 2 route from the mid-east and Indian sub continent. At this time of the year ships coming from that region must be inspected for the larva of a particular invasive species, namely Lymantria dispar asiatica, the LDA moth, formerly known as the Asian gypsy moth. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) conducts the inspection while the ship is at anchor and before it berths. [The word "gypsy" was considered to be demeaning and was eliminated.]

 

Due to its size, MSC Antigua was directed to anchorage number one, which is usually reserved for large ships and for short duration stays. It is also immediately off the PSA terminal, the ultimate destination of the ship once it has been cleared by the CFIA, and the berth is clear tomorrow morning. (PSA Halifax was all out today handling MSC Tamara and Tropic Hope).

MSC Antigua was built in 2013 by Hyundai Samho, and is registred at 94,453 gt, 112,516 dwt with a capacity of 8900 TEUs including 1,000 reefer plugs.

While the MSC Antigua was arriving the autocarrier Lake Wanaka was getting underway from Autoport. Its usual route would take it directly through number one anchoraage. To avoid any risk of close quarters, the ship continued from Eastern Passage east of George's Island, then turning north of the island passed outbound to the west of George's.

It is unusual to see an autocarrier in this part of the harbour, passing the George's Island jetty, with its gangways stowed for the winter.

 

It is also rare to get a close up view of an autocarrier from the Halifax side of the harbour.

Built in 2008 by Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co in Xiamen,as the Triumph, it was renamed (for a New Zealand lake) in 2019. The 46,800 gt, 12,272 dwt ship has a capacity for 4,902 autos, making it one of the smaller "car boats" and not a regular. Its last ports were in Spain, Morocco and Germany and its next port is given as Veracruz, Mexico, also not a usual destination.

As the ship passed Pier 20, MSC Antigua was just coming to anchor. It is worth noting that both ships have been retrofitted with exhaust gas scrubbers, contained in huge boxes, much large than a normal funnel.

 MSC Antigua's scrubber is located on the starboard side of the bridge, whereas the original funnel is located on the traditional midship line.

Later in the afternoon it was clear going for two other departures. SD Victoria, the Royal Navy support ship, has been in port since February 10. It destination was given as its home port of Portsmouth, UK. See previous post: February 10

The last departure that I observed was that of the Ruby Confidence. It arrived from Baltimore March 25, and loaded wood pellets at Pier 28 [ see previous post March 26]. It departed for Sudstrup, Denmark, the location of a large power plant fueled by biomass.

The stanchions to secure deck cargoes of timber are easier to see in this photo.

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