Quebec Express - strike catch up

 Quebec Express sailed today after a lengthy stay. The ship initially arrived at anchor off Halifax about August 19, then entered port August 25 after being diverted from Montreal due to the longshore strike there. See:  http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2020/08/container-catch-up.html

Since then it has been tied up at Cerescorp, Fairview Cove and has been shifted back and forth along the pier to accommodate other ships. It was unloaded and eventually loaded, and finally sailed for London Gateway as HAPAG-Lloyd and partners try to get their schedule back on track.

Container Catch Up

 The longshore strike in Montreal is over but the "hangover" persist in Halifax where hundreds of containers bound for or from Montreal are piled up in both terminals, and hundreds more outside the terminals in a variety of parking areas.

Empty containers have been moved out of the PSA terminal to make room for Montreal traffic within the secure customs zone. Normally staff parking, the storage area is along a popular jogging route to Point Pleasant Park.

Ships that normally call in Montreal are still calling in Halifax too, some to land delayed cargo. Today two of those ships arrived.

MSC Brianna made its way through misty rain to PSA Halifax. It is a 4168 TEU vessel of 51,931 gt and 51,931 dwt. Built in 1996 by Daewoo, Okpo it has carried six previous names since delivered as OOCL Germany. The sequence of subsequent names is 98: APL Germany, 02: Germany, 02: Nedlloyd Caribbean, 03: Maersk Doha, 07: MSC Columbia, 13: MSC Brianna.

Cerescorp also had an arrival:

Quebec Express is a 42,382 gt, 51,000 dwt ship with a 4043 TEU capacity. It was built in 2006 by the China Shipbuilding Corp in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and has been anchored off Halifax for a week.

These ships appear to be fully load with cargo destined for Montreal. After discharging, they will also pick up cargo from Montreal that has arrived or is still in transit by truck and by rail.

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Comings and Goings

 It was a busy day in Halifax with several comings and goings.

The tanker Baltic Mariner I  arrived at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. The ship has refined product from Antwerp,[Amsterdam!] but called in Saint John first to discharge some of the cargo. This is the reverse of the usual order where the ships call here first before heading to Saint John.

The ship operates in the Norient pool for managers Interorient Marine. It was built in 2006 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan and is on the small size for MidRange tankers at 23,420 gt, 37,304 dwt. Most MRs are around 50,000 dwt. 

Whatever product it was carrying it was needed at Woodside more urgently than what company tanker  East Coast is carrying. That ship arrived Monday and is anchored waiting its turn to unload.

(Photo taken last evening)

An unusual stopover took place this afternoon as NACC Newyorker put in for a short time to change some crew members. Dominion Diving's launch Halmar carried out the transfer.

The ship operates for Nova Algoma Cement Carriers under a charter to McInnis Cement running between the cement plant in Port Daniel, QC and US ports. Built in 2009 as the bulker Endeavour by Nanindah Mutiara, Batam, Indonesia, it was renamed NACC Napoli in 2017 when it was converted to a self-loader/ self-unloader. 

Another brief stopover was the bulker Nordloire which arrived yesterday at pier 28. It had loaded soya cargo in Quebec City and came to Halifax to top off. This is an unusual cargo since Halifax is not a large shipper of local agricultural product.

The ship was built in 2013 by Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding Co and measures 24,195gt, 37,212 dwt and carries four 30 tonne cranes. (I see the crew is in the midst of repainting the cranes.) Its original name was Nloire until 2017, and operates for Nord GmbH Reederei of Germany.

Container Activity

There was also lots of container activity today, thanks to the Montreal longshore strike and normal callers.

(Photo taken last evening)

Late this afternoon MSC Rochelle moved from anchorage back alongside PSA Halifax, They ship had unloaded earlier in the week and moved out to anchor awaiting its outbound cargo to arrive by rail and truck. Judging by the huge number of trucks from Ontario and Quebec at Halterm today, there will be lots of boxes going aboard.

There are five container ships anchored off the port awaiting their turns or outbound cargo. Ortolan Gamma, MSC Ela, Quebec Express and EM Kea are diversions. Atlantic Sail is a regular, waiting a berth.

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