THE Alliance gears up

The new shipping consortium, THE Alliance, that replaced the former G6 Alliance this month, is now almost in full swing. The Transatlantic Loop 6 service, called AL6, saw its first ship Brevik Bridge last week (see Shipfax April 21). The five ship rotation - with all K-Line ships has a port rotation of Livorno, La Spezia, Genoa, Fos, Barcelona, Valencia, Salerno, Halifax, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Salerno, Valencia, Livorno.

Today saw the arrival of YM Essence inaugurating the Transatlantic Loop 1, AL1, to be operated by four Yang Ming ships, with a rotation of Bremerhaven, Antwerp, London Gateway, Norfolk, Philadelphia, New York, Halifax, Bremerhaven.

 YM Essence takes its escort tug in the lower harbour. The ship is well laden aft - mostly with empties, judging by the ship's draft.

YM Essence is a 47,952 grt, 56,500dwt ship with a capacity of 4662 TEU. Built in 2014 by China Shipbuilding Corp in Kaohsiung, it flies the Taiwan flag for Yang Ming Marine Transport.
 

I wasn't the only shipwatcher. A group of well dressed photographers followed the ship through the inbound, getting some closeups as it passed the pier 9 knuckle. They may have been Yang Ming officials.

 

 The ship favoured the western side of the channel as it made its way through the Narrows.

Yang Ming is new in Halifax, so it was interesting to see the company's logo and funnel marking.  

THE Alliance will also be serving Halifax with its Southeast Asia / North America EC5 service, with ships from a variety of lines, including Hapag-Lloyd, APL, Evergreen, NYK and MOL. It will also have a strategic co-operation with ZIM, and at least one of its ships may be included. The service has begun, but the first ship to reach Halifax is expected to be Ningbo Express in early May..
Port rotation on that service is Laem Chabang, Cai Mep, Singapore, Colombo, Halifax, New York, Savannah, Norfolk, Halifax, Jebel Ali, Singapore, Laem Chebang.

However the ship that did arrive today, Mary is on the G6 AZX Asia-North America Eastbound leg, completing the obligations of the old consortium.

 Escort tug Spitfire III takes up position astern as the ship comes up to Halifax Shipyard.

(See also Tugfax)

It has been a regular on this long haul run, since its first call in September 2016. The ship ship has a capacity of 6900 TEU (including 800 reefers). It was built in 2013 by Hyundai, Samho and measures 71,021 grt, 80,274 dwt. Owned by Technomar Shipping Inc of Athens it is on charter to one of the G6 partners.

Spitfire III leans in on its line rounding the pier 9 knuckle, passing an RCN small craft out for a Sunday spin.

 
At present there is no scheduled THE Alliance Transpacific/Panama Canal loop that includes Halifax.

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One way traffic in the Narrows

 As the name implies, the Narows is not wide enough for two large ships to pass.

The shadow of the A.Murray MacKay bridge falls across the Mary as it makes its way toward Bedford Basin. Tug Atlantic Willow has made fast forward and Atlantic Fir is tethered aft.

With the container ship Mary arriving for HAPAG-Lloyd this afternoon, the ConRo Atlantic Sea stood by in Bedford Basin waiting. It was only a matter of a few minutes, and Atlantic Sea was underway again. You could almost feel the Atlantic Sea panting to get underway.
 

Late afternoon sun lights up the Mary as it makes it turn around Seaview Point, and Atlantic Sea has already powered up to go.

Mary has been here before for H-L, beginning in September on their AZX service.It was built by Hyundai Samho in 2013 and is a post (old) Panamax ship of 71,021 grt, 80,274 dwt with a capacity of 6900 TEU including 800 reefers.  It is operated by Technomar of Athens and  flies the Marshall Islands flag.

Atlantic Sea heads for the Narrows as the sun sets. Escort tug Atlantic Oak is in position astern, but not visible.

Atlantic Sea, the third of ACL's new G4 class ships, made its first call here August 21 but was not officially christened until October 20 when Princess Anne was the sponsor in Liverpool, England.

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