ZIM's ZCA changes

 ZIM's Mediterranean to North America East coast service called Zim Container Service Atlantic and abbreviated as ZCA has made a significant change to the ships in the rotation. The longstanding service has been using eight ships in recent times, but some of the familiar names have been replaced by other ships.

So far the "new to Halifax" ships have been Navios Indigo which has made two trips, the most recent arrival on October 19 and Melina arriving today (October 27) made its first call September 2 taking the place of the ZIM Yokohama in the rotation.

 Melina under the cranes at PSA Fairview Cove today.

Some 2007 era ships that have presumably completed charters and have been renamed and reassigned by their owners. The regular callers ZIM Yokohama, ZIM Vancouver , ZIM Shekou and ZIM Qindao have all gone off to other work, with the ZIM prefix removed and carrying the new names Yokohama Star, Vancouver Star, Shekou Star and Qingdao Star.

 Typical of the ships is the former ZIM Yokohama built in 2007 by the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry number 2 yard in Dalian. The standard design ship of 39,906 gt, 50,532 dwt has a capacity of 4250 TEU. It operated under the name Yokohama from 2009 to 2012, then reverted to ZIM Yokohama. Its first call in Halifax for the ZCA service was under that name on September 26, 2018. As of September 1, 2023 its name was recorded as Yokohama Star.

All Out

 Today, December 30, was another busy day in the Port of Halifax with activity at almost every pier in advance of another long holiday weekend. Both container terminals had ships alongside and more due while Autoport had its third ship in as many days.

PSA Fairview Cove had the colourful ONE Helsinki for THE Alliance. When it sailed NYK Romulus took its berth. The coastal ConRo Nolhan Ava was also alongside loading for Argentia, NL and St-Pierre et Miquelon.

 Built in 2012 by IHI, Kure as Helsinki Bridge the 96,801gt, 96,980 dwt ONE Helsinki has a capacity of 8930 TEU according to most sources. K-Line renamed the ship in 2020 as part of the Ocean Network Express amalgamation (in 2017) of the primary Japanese container lines (K-Line, MOL and NYK) to form Ocean Network Express.

The photo shows quite clearly why a second navigating bridge was added above the orginal one. It allows for the required visibility forward when the deck load was increased to six-high container stacks. 

Predictably ONE's choice of hull colour - magenta - has not proven to be terribly practical. The paint has faded due to ultra-violet degradation (and not evenly at that.) and touch ups do not match older paint. Also the usual wear and tear, rust streaks and tug and pilot boat contact scuff marks show up much more readily than on other colours. The problem is most obvious around the pilot door, but also appears at scuppers and drains.

As one of the biggest ships to call at PSA Fairview Cove, this ship made use of the tugs Atlantic Bear (alongside) and Atlantic Oak (tehered stern escort) as it made its way outbound through the Narrows.

 PSA's Southend terminal has ZIM Yokohama alongside with APL Sentosa due on its departure. Oceanex Sanderling was also working at the Atlantic Hub, but moved to Autoport when the berth was free. When there is a space clear tomorrow the smaller Lagarfoss, in Eimskip's Green Line service, will come alongside at Pier 42. In the meantine it anchored in the lower harbour.

Autoport had the SFL Conductor in from Emden, Germany.

Built in 2006 as Favorite Ace by Shin Kurushima, Hiroshima, the 60,118 gt, 17,709 dwt ship was renamed Glovis Conductor in 2012 and SFL Conductor in 2019. It has a capacity of 6500 Car Equivalent Units. The ship gave Baltimore as its destination on departure this afternoon

There was one more notable arrival, but that will be the suject of another post. See "Name Changer".

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APL Dublin - daylight arrival

 APL Dublin arrived in Halifax again today on the Columbus JAX service. This is the first time that it has arrived or sailed in full daylight, and so I was finally able to get a clear photo. 

APL Dublin passed the ZIM Yokohama, which has been anchored off Halifax since August 6.

It was not so long ago that ships with a capacity in excess of 10,000 TEU were a novelty in Halifax, but they are commonplace now. The only noticeable extra attention paid to them is the provision of a tethered escort tug at the stern. In today's case it was Atlantic Beaver taking up position off the pilot station, to be later joined by Atlantic Fir for docking.

APL Dublin dates from 2012 when Daewoo Shipbuilding +  Marine Engineering built the 128,929 gt, 131,204 dwt ship in Okpo, South Korea. Its capacity is listed as 10,960 TEU, but is nominally 11,000.

As for the mysterious ZIM Yokohama lurking offshore, it is shown on the port's arrival list for August 29. It sailed from Valencia, Spain on July 28 on its regular ZCA service. Its next port is to be New York, August 31. It is a 39,906 gt, 50,532 dwt ship with a capacity of 4250 TEU, built by Dalian New Shipbuilding, China in 2007.  It has been overtaken on its route by several other ZIM ships, including today's ZIM Monaco.

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