Christmas Eve action

There has been a big rush over the past few days to clear cargo before the Christmas holiday. Both container terminals have been very busy, but Halterm cleared its last customer this morning when CMA CGM Altaviva sailed at daybreak. Oceanex Sanderling sailed from Autoport this morning too.  The bulk carrier Eider arrived and sailed over night from pier 28 where it took a quick top off load of grain en route from the Great Lakes.

The action then shifted farther north.

Federal Swift comes to anchor against a backdrop of idle cranes at Halterm.

The bulk carrier Federal Swift arrived from Baie-Comeau for bunkers and anchored in the lower harbour. The ship was built in 2012 by Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding Co in Zhonshan, China. A ship of 24,196 grt, 37,140 dwt, it is in ballast likely having delivered bauxite or alumina to Baie-Comeau. The ship carries four 30 tonne cranes and grab buckets to handle such cargoes.

Fairview Cove was also busy over the last few days. Agios Minas cleared over night and Tokyo Express arrived, but I must have put the curse on Atlantic Sea, because it was forced out to anchor early last evening with mechanical issues. It was joined later by NYK Rumina which will be anchored until December 26 before it moves in to Fairview Cove.

A regular caller for the G6 Alliance NYK Rumina will be anchored for a couple of days.

The 55,534 grt, 65,981 dwt ship has a capacity of 4922 TEU (including 330 reefers) and was built in 2010 by Hyundai Samho.

A late morning arrival, Fritz Reuter went directly to anchor in Bedford Basin where it will remain until December 27 before moving to Halterm.

This is the ship's 25th voyage for Melfi Marine, trading between Europe and Cuba. The 18,840 grt, 23,732 dwt ship has a capacity of 1732 TEU (including 379 reefers) and carries a pair of 45 tonne cranes  for ports without container cranes. Its first visit to Halifax was December 8, 2013.
Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard Co Ltd produced the ship as Maruba Zonda in 2006, but it was renamed on delivery to Norddeutsche Reederei Schulte of Hamburg.

It was followed by the supplier Skandi Flora for pier 9C. It will not be needed over Christmas while the drill ship Stena IceMAX suspends drilling for maintenance.

Skandi Flora was built in 2009 by STX Norway Offshore AS in Trondheim for DOF Rederi AS of Storebo, Norway. It is operated for DOF Subsea Canada Corp by Mathers Logistics of Halifax under a coasting license as a non-duty paid Canadian flag vessel and was registered in Halifax September 3, 2015.
The 4469 grt, 5005 dwt ship will be finishing up its work soon as Shell has announced they will stop drilling in the Shelburne Basin on completion of the current well.


Once the two inbounds were safely out of the way, Tokyo Express was able to move through the Narrows for sea.

Tokyo Express eases by pier 9A where IT Intrepid is lingering for the finishing touches to a refit. It should be sailing for a cable repair job on the St.Lawrence River after re-fueling next week. 

HAPAG-Lloyd's Tokyo Express came out of the Hyundai Heavy shipyard in Ulsan in 2000. At 54,465 grt, 67,145 dwt, with a capacity of 4890 TEU (including 370 reefers) it is among that endangered species of (formerly) Panamax ships that are no longer considered efficient carriers. Ships of its size are going to scrap
at a record rate as the industry tries to shed itself of unprofitable tonnage.

Atlantic Sea followed on its heals.

ACL's third (of five) new G4 class ships, Atlantic Sea was delivered in the summer of 2016. The Shanghai built ships have all been experiencing teething problems as new-builds are wont to do, but this one had been more or less trouble free. However it was restricted to port by Transport Canada from yesterday until late this morning due to some mechanical problem. It was allowed to sail, even though it is missing its starboard anchor. It may not be that easy to find an anchor for a 100,430 grt, 56,700 dwt ship on short notice, and ships usually don't carry spares.

The loss of an anchor is usually the result of defective chain. It can be a serious matter when a chain fails, and that is why chain manufacturing is such a highly specialised process. See this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY2JqGTvPh8

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Tokyo Express - reuse, recycle

Like most many shipping companies HAPAG-Lloyd has a theme for its ship's names, Nowadays its container ships use a city name and the word "Express". The cities chosen are important trading, manufacturing or business centres or ports, and there seems to be a limited number of each. Therefore the names are re-used. New ships are often assigned the names of the most prestigious cities, sometimes commandeering the names from existing ships which are then given the names of lesser cities. (This is how we finally got a Halifax Express in 2002, After being a city in waiting for decades a new New York Express usurped the name from an older ship, which was demoted to our city.)

Today's arrival has always carried the name Tokyo Express since it was built in 2000 by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd in Ulsan, South Korea. The 54,465 grt, 67,145 dwt ship, with a capacity of 4890 TEU (including 370 reefers) may lose its name when a newer larger ship needs to be named for an important city. Ships of her size are considered inefficient in this age of meaga ships, so that could happen sooner rather than later.

The ship is not the first ship named for that port, however its predecessor used a German spelling. Tokio Express came from Hamburg's Blohm+Voss Steinwerder yard in 1973. At 57,802 grt it had a more modest 49,532 dwt and a container capacity of  just 2894 TEU. It was powered with steam turbine machinery developing an impressive 81,132 shp for a speed of 23 knots.

The newer Tokyo Express makes do with a 7 cylinder Burmeister+Wain diesel engine, built under license by Hyundai, of 54,438 bhp. Despite ship's greater cargo capacity it is rated for a 23 knot cruising speed. The improvement in engine and hull efficiency alone over a 25 year period is remarkable.
 

The earlier Tokio Express was reassigned for a year in 1984 and renamed Scandutch Edo, but reverted to Tokio Express again in 1985 and served out its years as such until it arrived in Jiangyin, China for scrapping January 10, 2000. It was a regular caller in Halifax in the mid 1990s.

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HAPAG-Lloyd's future, sunny or gloomy?

1. Tokyo Express sails 2011-02-05 on a sunny day.

2. New York Express arrives 2011-02-06 on a gloomy day.

HAPAG-Lloyd, the world's fifth largest container line, and Halifax's largest container customer is apparently set to be "floated" by IPO. The shipping company is now owned 49.8% by TUI a German travel company and 50.2% by the Albert Ballin Group (which consists of an number of backers.)

TUI has been trying to unload its share of H-L for several years, but the economy stalled efforts to float it on the stock market. A return to prosperity by Maersk (the world's largest) and a settling down of concerns about MSC and CMA/CGM (the #2 and #3 lines) have lead to reports that TUI will soon be making a move to sell about half of its current stake by IPO.

There is still concern among financiers as to who might be in the market for such a small chunk of H-L, since most major players would want a majority. There is also the issue of whether H-L is profitable enough to bring in a good price. Time will tell.

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In the meantime HAPAG-Lloyd continues to stream in and out of Halifax on a regular schedule.

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