Two Hours of Activity

 There was quite a bit of activity compressed into a short period of time this afternoon June 23. Between 1715 hrs and 1915 hrs (ADT) there were five ships underway in the harbour.

The first ship was an arrival, the tanker Quartz from Montreal. It is a peculiar arrival as most handysize tankers come to Halifax to deliver refined product to either Irving Oil or Imperial Oil (Exxon mobil). This ship however is in ballast.

Built in 2015 by SPP Shipbuilding Co in Sacheon, it is a 9,767 gt, 49,990 dwt ship, running for Sinokor Petrochemical Co Ltd. It had arrived in Montreal on June 18 from Milford Haven, Wales, site of a large storage and distribution terminal. (The refinery there closed in 2014), and sailed for Halifax June 20. Presumably it unloaded refined product in Montreal.

Inbound soon after was HMCS Glace Bay returning from the Titanic wreck site where it was involved in the search for the submersible "Titan". Glace Bay was carrying a decompression chamber and medical personnel.

The Quartz went to anchor in the lower harbour in the same position as the Eimskip vessel Bakkafoss which got underway as the Glace Bay was passing.

 The Bakkafoss is new to Eimskip, and is on its first trip in a new charter arragement with Ernst Russ. As reported here in March, Eimskip is reducing the number of ships on its transatlantic service from four to three, but by increasing the size of ships will keep its container capacity the same. See: March News

Built in 2009 by Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 11,550 gt, 14,669 dwt ship has a capacity of 1025 TEU, including 231 reefers. Built as JMS Brisbane it was renamed JRSPollux on delivery, becoming Pollux in 2013 and Elbsummer in 2020. It received the name Bakkafoss in May.

It joins Lagarfoss and Vivienne Sheri D on the Green line service, joining Reykjavik, Halifax, Portland, ME, Halifax, Argentia, NL, Reykjavik. (Halifax and Argentia are optional).

 

Bakkafoss headed for PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub to dock at Pier 42 as soon as the EM Kea cleared. One of the St-Laurent 1 service regulars (operated by CMA CGM and Maersk) EM Kea arrived early in the morning and sailed for Bremerhaven.

The final ship was CMA CGM Hermes sailing from Pier 41 for New York on the Columbus JAX service from Singapore and Malaysia via Suez and Tanger Med.

 The CMA CGM Hermes was built in 2021 by Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Shipuilding. It is registered at 154,995 gt, 156,055 dwt with a capacity of 15,000 TEU.

There will be some departures over night, with arrival activity resuming early at daybreak tomorrow morning.

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New and Repeats

 Another "extra loader" container ship arrived today at PSA Halifax. These non-scheduled ships are not assigned to any particular route, but can move loads when the regular ships are held up in other ports or where empties and other boxes are accumulating in ports with little export cargo. MSC Noa was built by Hyundai, Ulsan in 2009 as APL Texas, and was renamed Texas in 2014 - presumably after a five year charter. It became MSC Noa in 2018.

It is a 75,582 gt, 85,713 dwt ship with a container capacity of 6500 TEU. I like the tanker style bridge wings. The ship is arriving from Le Havre, France, not a usual port for MSC ships coming to Halifax. It doesn't look like it has much extra capacity.

At Autoport it was Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Thalatta, one of the HERO class of High Efficiency RoRos, with a capacity of 8,000 CEU (Car Equivalent Units).

 I covered this ship when it arrived in Halifax for the first time May 10, 2016  At that time the ship was wearing its original Wilhelmsen colours , but has since adopted the new combination scheme shared by both companies.

The weather was superb this weekend and boaters were out in droves, as next weekend, (Canadian) Thanksgiving, is the traditional end of the season when many seasonal boat insurance policies expire. There were sails all the way to the horizon it seemed as the tanker Quartz [see previous post] sailed from Imperial Oil. Also the Tropical Shipping vessel Tropic Hope arrived at an outer anchorage, and will wait until tomorrow to tie up at PSA Halifax. 

It is an unusual trip for a tanker in ballast to sail from Halifax to Quebec City. The ship does not show on the Port of Quebec schedule yet, so it is not possible to say where it will dock or what it will load.

It was also unusual that the ship moved from Imperial Oil to Pier 27 yesterday (October 2). This may have been to take bunkers, but I could not see if there were tank trucks on the pier to deliver the fuel.

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Business, more or less as usual

 September 30 was observed as a Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. However it was not declared as a statutory holiday, so some businesses remained open. Others closed out of respect for Canada's indigenous population and in particular the victims of the residential schools program.

Even the port of Halifax did not have a consistent approach. PSA Halifax reduced its truck gate hours to a half day - 0800 to 1200 but Cerescorp kept its truck gate closed for the day. Both terminals had ships alongside however, and they were worked as usual.

At PSA Halifax it was a first time caller, CMA CGM J. Madison. It was built in 2018 by Hyundai, Ulsan and is a 140,872 gt,, 147,966 dwt ship with a capacity of 14,414 TEU. It certainly appeared well loaded with containers stacked seven to eight high on deck.

There are reports that PSA Halifax has confirmed its order for another super post-panamax crane, which it certainly could use if it is to handle two ships of this size at the same time.

Cerescorp was also handling a very large ship for its facility. ONE Hangzhou Bridge is a 96,760 gt, 96,980 dwt ship with a capacity of 9120 TEU. It was built for K-Line by IHI Kure in 2012 as Hangzhou Bay Bridge and renamed in January 2021 and given its new hull colour. The ship made its first call here on THE Alliance's EC5 service June 28, 2021 and is scheduled again for October 20.

Fairview Cove could also use a new crane to replace the old crane at the far end of the pier. It seems to be out of service. ONE Hangzhou Bridge shares the pier with the Nolhan Ava which makes its usual weekly sailing to Argentia and St-Pierre on Fridays.

Imperial Oil also had an arrival today. Quartz brought in a cargo of refined product from Beaumont, TX.

The ship is operated by Sinokor Petrochemical Co and was built by SPP Shipbuilding Co, Incheon, South Korea in 2015. The ship is a 29,767 gt, 49,990 MidRange type.

At Pier 9C it was a return call for the United States flag bulk carrier SLNC Severn. It was here for the first time June 26, 2021 for a compliance inspection by Transport Canada.

    

This time the ship appeared to be taking bunker fuel (under the watchful eye of the Canada Border Services Agency). The ship's operators Schuyler Lines Navigation Company (SLNC) have been carrying aggregates from Auld's Cove, Strait of Canso, where there are no bunkering facilities. The ship has also been reported in the South Atlantic (Saint Helena), and Cape Verde and the Canary Islands recently. 

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