Cars and Gas for Same

 Halifax is the entry point for imported automobiles, and in a perverse sense of logic it is also the entry point for imported petroleum products to fuel them. In the past few days the tanker Largo Elegance brought in refined product from Antwerp for Imperial Oil. [see previous posts] And today, May 8,  the autocarrier Violet Ace brought in a quantity of cars from Emden, Germany.

 As the Violet Ace rounds Ives Knoll outbound from Autoport, Eastern Passage, the tug Atlantic Fir returns to its temporary base at the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (COVE).

Built in 2011 by Ha Long Shipbuilding Co in Vietnam, Violet Ace is a 49,708 gt, 13,370 dwt ship with a capacity of 5,000 CEU. It's next scheduled port is Houston. ["Ace" stands for Auto Carrier Express, a division of  MOL (Mitsui OSK Lines) of Japan.]

Also today, Irving Oil's tanker Acadian docked at Imperial Oil to off load some more fuel. This is the second time in recent days that Irving Oil has delivered fuel to Imperial.

Dominion Diving's workboat Boss Hog tows a string of floats as Acadian heaves up its anchor to move to Imperial Oil.

The Acadian was reported in Saint John April 17-18, then in Quebec City April  23-24 and Montreal April 24-25. It presumably loaded there. It stopped over in Charlottetown before arriving at Irving Oil's terminal here May 6. It moved out to anchor yesterday awaiting the Algoscotia to clear the berth at Imperial Oil. (Algoscotia sailed for Sydney this morning).

The crane ship Orion was using its 5,000 tonne main crane today at the IEL dock to lift some large components. J.D.Irving Equipment also had its huge Liebherr crawler crane and a truck crane on site too. The ship is preparing for construction to install the foundations for a wind farm off Massachusetts.

 As previously reported the activity with the crane ship at the IEL dock has temporarily displaced the Atlantic Towing Ltd tugs from the north end of the IEL dock to the COVE docks at the former Coast Guard base.

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Two by Two

 Two PCTCs

The first arrival in Halifax this morning, September 3, was the Pure Car and Truck Carrier Themis, from the usual ports of Zeebrugge, Bremerhaven and Southampton.  A Wilhelmsen ship, it is operating on the transatlantic service of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean. It tied up at Pier 9C and unloaded a vast array of mining, agricultural, forestry and construction equipment and machinery.

The ship was built by Hyundai Samho in 2016, and is a 75,223 gt, 23,786 dwt vessel with a capacity of 8,000 RT43 cars. It has a 320 tonne stern ramp, and is exhaust gas scrubber equipped. It will move to Autoport tomorow to offload cars.

Later in the morning another autocarrier arrived and went directly to Autoport.     

The Violet Ace was here as recently as July 26. Since then the ship has called in Houston August 2-3, Veracruz August 6-8, and Emden August 25-26. As noted in the July post, it is a somewhat smaller PCTC of 49,708 gt, 13,370 dwt but with a respectable capacity of 5,000 CEU. It was built in 2011 by Ha Long Shipbuilding Co in Ha Long, Vietnam.

 

Two Container Ships

Sailing again late this afternoon for Davisville, RI, the ship passed the Humen Bridge which has been anchored offshore since September 1. Another container ship MSC Esthi had also been anchored offshore, but it moved in to PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway this morning (sorry no photo except yesterday's silhouette in the background).

Two Tankers

An unusual morning arrival was the crude oil tanker Sonangol Namibe.

 The ship tied up at Pier 27-28 to take on bunker fuel.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co, Okpo, delivered the 83,469 gt, 158,425 dwt ship in 2007. The Sonangol Group is the multi-faceted state owned oil company of Angola. They have partnered with Stena to operate the Stena Sonangol pool of twenty-one Suezmax tankers.

 Sonangol Namibe sailed from Ras Tanura July 6, and stopped in Walvis Bay anchorage, Namibia, July 31 and the Girassol Terminal in Angola August 9-10. It then proceeded to Point Tupper, NS, anchoring August 29 then moving to the Everwind Terminal (formerly NuStar) August 31 to September 1. It presumably offloaded a storage cargo in Point Tupper.

On sailing this afternoon for New York the ship did not appear to be carrying much if any cargo. 

Later tonight the Bangladesh flag product tanker Banglar Agrajatra (see yesterday's post) will move from Irving Oil's Woodside terminal to Pier 27-28, also to take on bunker fuel, delivered to the ship by truck. 

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Violet Ace for Autoport

 Mitsui O.S.K. Lines of Japan, operates an auto carrier fleet of more than 110 ships (according to their website), called Auto Carrier Express, but usually abbreviated to MOL ACE. They maintain numerous routes in Asia, Oceania, Africa, Europe and the Americas, independently of other carriers.

Today's (July 26) arrival at Autoport was one of the "smaller" ships in the fleet, the Violet Ace.

Built in 2011 by the Ha Long Shipbuilding Co in Ha Long, Vietnam, it is a 49,708 gt, 13,370 dwt vessel with a capacity of 5,000 CEU. The ships we are used to seeing at Autoport these days usually have a capacity in the 7,000 to 8,000 CEU range. The Ha Long company has recently partnered with the Damen Group of the Netherlands, but has been a state owned enterprise since 1976.

The ship is not actually owned by MOL but is chartered from Ray Car Carriers, the Israeli owned, Isle of Man based auto carrier arm of the Ungar family. Their ships are managed by Stamco Ship Management, a Greek company that manages Ray ships for all the major auto carrier fleets. Ray Car Carriers uses predominantly Bulgarian crews.

Outbound rounding Ives Knoll, the ship puffs some black smoke from its funnel, that has an unusual lattice work cap structure.

Violet Ace arrived from Emden and is bound for Houston, a distinctly different route than other auto carrier lines that usually call in Davisville, RI or New York.

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