Friday Action

 Fridays are often busy in the port of Halifax with ships arriving and sailing at the end of the work week. (The container terminals accept truck arrivals Monday to Friday only).  Today, June 14, was no exception with four container ship arrivals and four container ship departures,

The first arrival was the CMA CGM Chile an Argentina class 149,314 gt, 157,076 dwt ship with a capacity of 15,072 TEU. It was built by Hyundai Samho in 2019 and has been calling for the OCEAN Alliance since new. On this trip it departed Colombo on May 14 and sailed via the Cape of Good Hope to Tanger Med, Morocco arriving June 6 and sailing June 7. Most container ships continue to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal due to risk of attack.

CMA CGM Chile beneath the mountain of containers at Pier 41.

Also at PSA Atlantic Gateway was the Silver Arctic, a ship at the other end of the size scale, berthed at Pier 42. A short term charter for TSMI, it is filling in while the regular ship, the Nolhan Ava has been in refit in Setubal, Portugal. That ship is now on its way back to North America and is due in Argentia June 18 to resume its weekly Halifax / St-Pierre / Argentia container and RoRo service.

The Silver Arctic is operated for the Silver Line of Bergen, Norway under the Norwegian International registry by Fjord Shipping AS of Mäloy. It was launched in 2010, but was not completed in 2012 when the builders Shipyard P+S Werften went bankrupt. Construction was transferred to Remontowa Shipbuilding in Gdansk, Poland in 2013 but there was further delay in 2018 when the original owners, Royal Arctic Line, refused acceptance. It was then sold to Fjord and completed in 2021. It is a 3162 gt, 2700 dwt ship with a capacity of 111 TEU (59 on deck) including 80 reefers (28 on deck) and carries one 25 tonne and one 45 tonne SWL crane. (It has no RoRo capability however.) 

Its first sailing from Halifax for TSMI was April 5 and was expected to cover the route for six to eight weeks. The ship operates regularly to Antarctica and Greenland, so will likely be headed home at the end of the charter in time for arctic work.

Not long after Silver Arctic sailed, the MSC Lisa arrived from Montreal on the CANEX2 route, and took up the vacated berth 42.

 

 Hanjin Heavy Industry and Construction Co built the MSC Lisa in Busan in 2004. The 54,304 gt, 68,578 dwt ship has a capacity of 5059 TEU. It arrived loaded to St.Lawrence River draft, and will top up cargo to ocean draft.

The ship's arrival was coordinated with the departure of the ZIM Atlantic from PSA Fairview Cove so that the two ships met just off the Southend Container Terminal after the MSC Lisa had completed its turn and backed in to Pier 42 leaving the main channel clear.

 

There is a lot more room between the two ships than it appears in this photo, so a pleasure craft could speed though in relative safety.

ZIM Atlantic is running on the ZIM Container Atlantic (ZCA) service from the Mediterranean. Its hull paint still has a glossy appearance, indicating that its recent survey and drydocking in May included new paint. 

When the ship arrived in Halifax the first time September 23, 2023 it still carried the blue hull paint of its previous owners.

 The ship was launched in 2009 by Hyundai Heavy Industry Co Ltd in Ulsan as the CPO Richmond for the Claus-Peter Offen company of Hamburg, however it was delivered with the name Cap Harvey for charter to Hamburg-Süd and carried that company's traditional red hull paint.

In 2017 the ship moved to CMB NV ownership (Cie Maritime Belge) and was managed by their wholly owned subsidiary Bocimar.  It then acquired blue hull paint and was renamed Heron Hunter. In late 2021 the ship was sold again this time to direct ownership by ZIM with Hammonia Reederei of Hamburg, as managers. (Hammonia manages several other ZIM ships too.) The renaming to ZIM Atlantic was effective January 1, 2022, but the hull was not repainted at once. 

Other container ship activity not detailed above was the early morning departure of the ZIM feeder Pacific Trader and the weekly Oceanex Sanderling container  / RoRo to St. John's.Boh are familiar sights in Halifax and have been covered here before.

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Friday exodus

 Ships like to sail on Fridays, in part to avoid  possible overtime charges or weekend rates, but also because many cargo terminals operate Monday to Friday at the land gate, with no truck arrvials and departures processed on the weekends. 

It is therefore not unusual to see several ships sailing from Halifax on a Friday afternoon, but today (April 19) was still notable notable due to the number leaving in quick succession.

When I got to my favourite vantage point at Point Pleasant Patk shortly after 1800 hrs ADT, the Atlantic SaiI was out of sight, but I did just manage to catch the EF Ava well off in the distance, having left PSA Halifax's South End Container Terminal (SECT) about 20 minutes before.

EF Ava 18:26 hrs ADT

It is headed for Reykjavik on Eimskip's weekly Green Line service to / from Portland, ME.

At the same time the NYK Rigel was passing my position outbound on The Alliance's AL5 route to Port Everglades.

NYK Rigel 18:26 hrs ADT

No sooner had the NYK Rigel passed than the MSC Sines R got underway from the SECT for Sines, Portugal on the CANEX2 service from Montreal. The ship was here March 15 westbound en route to Montreal.

 

MSC Sines R 18:29 hrs ADT

In a break from commercial activity the next outbound was the CCGS Jean Goodwill on SAR patrol east.

CCGS Jean Goodwill 18:39 hrs ADT

Next along was the auto carrier Morning Lynn from Autoport en route to New York. It was following the usual Wallenius Wilhelmsen transatlantic port rotation of Bremerhaven, Goteborg, Zeebrugge, Southampton, Halifax.

 Morning Lynn 18:45 hrs ADT.

 

The ship was built in 2009 by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industry Co Ltd and is registered at 68,701 gt, 28,092 dwt with a capacity of 8,011 CEU. Eukor is the former car carrier divison of Hyundai Merchant Marine acquired by Wallenius Wilhelmsen to gain control of Korean auto exports (and fend off the Japanese car carriers). It is still a South Korean company, but is now jointly owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen, American Roll-on-Roll-off Carriers (ARC) and United European Car Carriers.

The ship is also equipped with a larger than usual side ramp, mounted well aft. Newer ships have dispensed with side ramps as they are seldom used in most ports, and cannot be used in Autoport due to the narrow pier. 

Waiting patiently at Pier 42 for this parade to pass was the Silver Arctic the interim ship on TSMI's St-Pierre et Miquelon and Argentia, NL service. It was facing bow north, so had to turn off the dock before heading out to sea.

Silver Arctic 18:47 hrs ADT

The Silver Arctic is a six to eight week replacement while TMSI's CONRO ship the Nolhan Ava is on scheduled refit [see previous posts]. Despite having no RoRo capability, the Silver Arctic was carrying acouple of cargo vans which appear to be lashed to a 45 ft platform type container (with no walls or roof, but a heavy flat base.) It will require special sling arrangements to off-load, as a standard container spreader will not work.

Also sailing, but a little later in the evening, was Oceanex Sanderling after dark.

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Silver Arctic substitute

 The weekly TMSI (Transport Maritime Service International) feeder line between Halifax, St-Pierre et Miquelon and Argentia, NL is served by the Container  / RoRo ship Nolhan Ava. It has been plying the route reliably for many a year, usually sailing from Halifax on Fridays.

 

The Shamrock in its original configuration.

The ship was built in 2000 specifically for the St-Pierre et Miquelon route as the Shamrock. However it was reassigned in 2004 due to financial issues with the owner. It then worked in the Caribbean until its return to Halifax in 2015 as Nolhan Ava. The ship was taken off the route for a time in 2016 for installation of a ceramic membrane exhaust gas scrubber system in China. When Argentia was added to the route in 2018 it was brought into Canadian registry.

In May 2023 it shifted its Halifax berth from PSA Fairview Cove to the Southend Container Terminal - which is operated as PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway.

The Nolhan Ava after installation of the scrubber.

It required time off for drydocking and maintenance in 2019 and again in 2021. It has now gone on a longer refit. As a unique ship, there is no Canadian flag vessel of its size and capability that could take its place, and TSMI applied for a coasting license to use a foreign flag replacement. That ship, the Silver Arctic, arrived in Halifax today, March 31 to prepare for the assignment.

The Silver Arctic is operated for the Silver Line of Bergen, Norway under the Norwegian International registry by Fjord Shipping AS of Mäloy. It was launched in 2010, but was not completed in 2012 when the builders Shipyard P+S Werften went bankrupt. Construction was transferred to Remontowa Shipbuilding in Gdansk, Poland in 2013 but there was further delay in 2018 when the original owners, Royal Arctic Line, refused acceptance. It was then sold to Fjord and completed in 2021. It is a 3162 gt, 2700 dwt ship with a capacity of 111 TEU (59 on deck) including 80 reefers (28 on deck) and carries one 25 tonne and one 45 tonne SWL crane. (It has no RoRo capability however.) The ship normally operates from Norway to Iceland, Faroes Islands, Scotland and Baltic ports, but also makes regular trips to Antarctica.  

It was in Cape Town January 5 and after servicing the Norwegian Antarctic base at Troll was back in Cape Town February 9, then was reported at Las Palmas February 27, Goteborg March 8, Aalborg March 9 and Trømsø March 13. It sailed for Halifax on March 14.

The Nolhan Ava sailed from Argentia on March 25 and is due in Setubal, Portugal April 4.The refit there is expected to take four weeks, and allowing another week for the return trip to Canada it is expected to be back in service by the end of May.

Meanwhile Silver Artic's actual charter is to start April 4 with the first sailing from Halifax April 5.

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