Morning Capo on the loop

The autocarrier Morning Capo returned to Autoport today, July 4, completing two Atlantic "loops" since its last visit April 30.

The ship was built in 2013 by Hyundai Heavy Industry at its Kunsan (also given as Gunsan) shipyard. The mammoth facility, complete with 700m long drydock and a 1,000 tonne crane, was opened in 2009, but closed in 2017 due to depressed demand. When it was re-opened in October last year the company hired 750 workers (to start).

A 59,615 gt, 20,139 dwt ship, it has a capacity of 6,674 cars. The ship is managed by Wilhelmsen, one of the owners of the Eukor brand name, and is operating on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Oceann transatla ntic service.

Tracing its recent movements I find that the ship was in Zeebrugge May 26-29 then called in Dundalk, MD (June 7-9), Baltimore (June 9-10), Goteborg (June 20-21) and Zeebrugge again June 23-25.

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Sunday Report

 There was considerable activity in the port spread out over the day today, April 30, 2023.

Early morning arrivals at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway were the two regulars EM Kea on the St-Laurent 1 service (CMA CGM + Maersk) from Montreal.

... and ONE Helsinki on the EC5 service for THE Alliance.

Built in 2012 by IHI, Kure the 96,801 gt, 96,980 dwt ONE Helsinki has a capacity of 8930 TEU. This is its first call at the Southend, but now all the larger ships on this service will no longer be calling at PSA Fairview Cove due to their size. The ship was built as Helsinki Bridge and renamed in 2020 when it was chartered by K-Line to the Ocean Network Express (ONE).

With all that activity at the Southend, the arriving Tropic Hope went to anchor in the lower harbour. Tropical Shipping's vessels are usually worked on Mondays, so this does not represent a delay.

 At Fairview Cove, and sailing in the early afternoon it was NYK Rumina on the AL5 service.

Another of the Daedalus series of ships it was built in 2010 by Hyundai, Samho. The 55,487 gt, 66,171 dwt ship has a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers.

Autoport had another caller today - the spring increase in demand for cars is in full flood!

The Morning Capo arrived from Southampton after calling at all the usual continental ports. Built in 2013 by Hyundai, Kunsan* it is a 59,615 gt, 20,139 dwt ship with a capacity of 6,674 CEU.
 

[* Kunsan, also translated as Gunsan, is a new shipyard built by Hyundai in 2008. Due to a slump in demand for ships it was closed in 2017, but re-opened in October 2022. It is located 179 km southwest of Seoul.]

 There was also a different arrival of sorts. The Dutch flag multi-purpose type general cargo ship FWM Atlantic tied up at Pier 25. This is not a pier for working cargo, but more often used for ships in layup or for repairs.

The ship is virtually brand new - it was delivered January 6, 2023 by Ferus Smit (I am not sure which shipyard) in the Netherlands. It was built as Symphony Atlantic but was renamed FWN Atlantic as of January 1, 2023. The 8360 gt, 12,575 dwt ship is built to the open hatch, box shaped hold pattern and carries two cranes. However it may be fitted with travelling pipe handling gantries in the holds. The devices unstack large diameter pipes, placing them one at a time on a platform where the ship's deck cranes then lift them off. (The process works in reverse for loading).The ship is also equipped with Dynamic Positioning 2 which indicates offshore gas pipeline activity.

See tomorrow's report for more on the FWN Atlantic and related activity.

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