South End Too

There was activity in the south end of the port today too.

At pier 27 the Bulgarian owned, Malta flag bulker Rila that arrived yesterday [see yesterday's post] was loading what appeared to be grain.

Most unusually the ship was berthed stern in. In all the years I have been watching ships in Halifax, this is the first time I can recall a ship loading at the grain spouts in the stern in position.

At the south end container terminal operating as PSA Halifax, Melfi Line's Julius-S. completed loading and sailed for Mariel, Cuba.

Amongst the boxes there is another of those bright green La Estancia trailers. I thought they had all gone out on the last Melfi ship, X-Press Makulu on March 3. See: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2020/03/near-normal.html

There was activity at the oil terminals too, and it is a bit unusual.

At Imperial Oil it is Algoterra fresh from winter maintenance in Quebec City. The ship has not yet been repainted in Algoma colours since acquired last year.

Once it completed its alongside refit in Quebec, it loaded at Valero and headed for Halifax. It is not unusual for the oil companies to acquire product from each other. Interestingly Algoma fleet mate Algoscotia sailed from Halifax March 8 for Houston, TX - another source of product.

Also arriving, but for Irving Oil is Sarah Desgagnés (again) from Saint John.

(Ah - finally a bow shot). This is Sarah's second visit recently. It is  taking up the slack in Irving's own fleet as their Canadian flag tanker East Coast is in drydock in Setubal, Portugal. It sailed from here February 24, see: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2020/02/tankers-something-for-everybody.html
and arrived in Setubal March 5.

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Business As Usual - so far

Commercial activity in the harbour seems to be going on as usual for the time being. With growing restrictions on optional travel, so far at least, business activity is still unrestricted.

Irving Oil completed the unloading of the tanker Elka Glory and the ship sailed for Amsterdam  this afternoon.

Operated by European Product Carriers Ltd, the 27,612 grt, 44,598 dwt ship has called here previously. It was built by Brodosplit in Split, Croatia in 2003.

While it was outbound the bulker Rila was inbound from Belledune, NB in ballast.

Owned by Navigation Maritime Bulgare (NAVIBULGAR) until 2008 the State shipping company of Bulgaria, it sails under the Maltese flag. Built by Jiangsu Hongqiang HI in Qidong in 2017, it is a 27,781 grt, 41,536 dwt vessel carrying four 30 tonne cranes.

The ship tied up at pier 28, likely for bunkers.

Later in the afternoon the autocarrier Green Bay moved from Autoport to pier 31 to unload some wheeled machinery.

The ship was built in 20007 by Toyohashi SB as Grand Winner, but renamed on delivery. With a capacity of 6400 CEU, its tonnages are registered as 59,250 grt, 18,312 dwt. It is one of four US flag car carriers operated by Waterman (part of Seacor). Because it was not built in the US it does not qualify for domestic trade under the Jones Act, however it does receive preference for US government cargoes including military.

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