Box Ships and Cruisers

 The cruise season is now well underway and today, May 16, marked the arrival of both a familiar ship and a new ship to Halifax.

The Pearl Mist ought to be familiar because it was built by the Halifax Shipyard. Its story is a convoluted one, best summarized by its Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Mist

 With a passenger capacity of 210 (in 105 cabins, all outside with balconies) and 70 crew, the ship is one of the smallest cruise ships to call in Halifax. It arrived this morning from Portland, ME and sailed this afternoon for the Strait of Canso en route to the Great Lakes for the summer.

At the other end of the scale was the first time caller Norwegian Prima, a 143,535 gt behemoth with a passenger capacity of 3,099 and crew of 1,506.

 The first of six ships to be built by Fincantieri, Marghera, it is just about the ugliest passenger ship I have ever seen. It boasts large open deck space including a ten deck water slide and a race track, plus an exclusive First Class section called The Haven which is isolated from the common passenger area. No doubt it has many other amenities, which can be enjoyed without actually having to see the ship.

There was lots of more prosaic container ship activity in the port too. The MSC Rossella made a call at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway to top up cargo en route from Montreal to Barcelona on MSC's Canada Express 2 service.

A veteran ship, built in 1993 by Samsung Geoje, it is a 37,398 gt, 43,605 dwt vessel with a container capacity of 3398 TEU. Launched as Hansa Europe it was delivered as Ville de Carina and renamed MSC Rossella in 1997. With the fluctuating market for ships these days it is hard to know how much longer it will survive. With all the deliveries of new ships scheduled for 2023-2024, the market may become saturated, but few of then will be this size, which is ideal for the St.Lawrence trade. However thirty year old ships are rare due to the cost of keeping them in class. It is due for its next surveys later this year and almost all of its certificates expire December 31, 2023.

In the above photo, the MSC Rossella is outbound in the Main (Eastern) channel and the tug Atlantic Willow is on its way to meet the ZIM Qingdao inbound in the Deepwater (Western) channel. Ferguson's Cove is an ideal viewing spot for ships in the western channel as they swing close to shore.

On the Zim Container Atlantic (ZCA) service, arriving from Valencia, Spain, the ZIM Qingdao is a 39,906 gt, 60,690 dwt ship with a capacity of 4250 TEU. It was built in 2006 by Dalian New Shipbuilding.

By using the Western Channel, ZIM Qingdao gave the Norwegian Prima lots of room in the Eastern Channel.

Another arrival, about an hour later sailed on through the harbour to PSA Fairview Cove. The NYK Constellation is another of the Daedalus class of 55,534 gt, 65,919 dwt, with a capacity of 4922 TEU with 330 reefer plugs. As with several recent sister ships it is on THE Alliance's AL5 service arriving from Saint John, NB on the eastbound leg. Its sister ship NYK Daedalus arrived early this morning westbound from Antwerp, also at PSA Fairview Cove. There was thus the rare opportunity to see two ships of the same class together - which I missed.

Despite best efforts (Shipfax can only be in one place at a time - so far) I also managed to miss the MSC Cornelia on the Turkey-Greece run en route to Boston and the auto carrier Supreme Ace from Emden for Houston. (Both ships hsave been mentioned in this blog before.)

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Qingdao double header

Several container lines name their ships for cities - usually important ports on their routes, or sources of cargo. HAPAG-Lloyd is one such line as is ZIM. Other lines seem to have various naming schemes and sometimes use cities - MSC is one of the latter.

It had to happen that two ships named after the same city would arrive in Halifax on the same day, and today, March 19, was the day.

First in was MSC Qingdao, joined later in the day by ZIM Qingdao, tying up at adjacent berths at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway.

ZIM Qingdao is securing at Pier 42 (left) while the larger MSC Qingdao occupies Pier 41 (right)

The city of Qingdao (meaning Azuere Island), China, is in Shandong Province on the Yellow Sea. A major commercial and technical hub it has a population in excess of 10 million. Its port is an important one for the region and is served by most shipping lines.

MSC's ship took its name in 2019 when the former OOCL Qingdao was renamed MSC Qingdao. It was built in 2004 by Samsung HI in Geoje and is an 89,097 gt, 105,162 dwt ship with a capacity of 8063 TEU including 1400 reefers. MSC usually uses women's names for its own ships, but in this case the ship is chartered, so is an exception. It also carries the funnel markings of its managers Technomar Shipping Inc.

 Most OOCL ships were built for trans Pacific service and have sturdy lashing frames on the stern to secure containers from following seas.

(A flotilla of ducks - I believe Greater Scaups - ignores the arrival)

ZIM's ship was built in 2006 by Dalian New Shipbuilding and is a 39,906 gt, 50,689 dwt vessel with a capacity of 4250 TEU.

 

 In this file photo, the ship is seen with many Hapag-Lloyd containers. ZIM and Hapag-Loyd have a slot agreement.

Both ships have been calling in Halifax for several years, but this is the first time that the two have been in port at the same time.

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Leveling off

 Container ships can be loaded to capacity either by volume or by weight. In the former, they load the maxiumum number of containers that the hold and deck have space for, while preserving visibility lines. In the latter they have loaded the maximum tonnage, even if there is space for more containers. Obviously the profitability of a given voyage depends on balancing the two, since empty containers don't pay.

This morning, June 29 both the departure and the arrival appeared to be well down on their draft marks, but possibly more room for containers.

ZIN Qingdao sailed from PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub for New York on the ZCA service from the Mediterranean.

The 39,906 gt, 50,689 dwt ship, built in 2006 by Dalian Industry Co in Dalian, China, appeared to be loaded to near capacity of 4250 TEU, with most stacks five boxes high, leaving maybe a few gaps in the deckload for more.

The inbound ship, which was to take its place at Pier 42, was very neatly levelled off on deck, but with stacks only four boxes high.

MSC Cancun dates from 2009 when it was built by Hanjin Heavy Industry + Construction Co Ltd at Subic Bay, Philippines. The 41,322 gt, 52,316 dwt ship has a capacity of 4360 TEU including 326 reefers. It is on the Turkey, Greece to North America route, with a stop at MSC's feeder port of Sines, Portugal. The ship could have been topped off at the last port to maximize loading.

The ship caried the name Zim Ukrayina from 2009 to 2018, then briefy Bahia in 2018 when it became MP The Brown until 2021. 

I can explain the significance of the latter name. One time investor / owners Mangrove Partners (MP), based in New York, named their seven ships after New England Patriots football players, one of whom was Troy Brown. Aside from the unusual names, Mangrove Partners ships also acquired notoriety because of the profit they turned when sold. Bought for $62 mn during the depressed market of 2017-18, six of the ships were sold for $368 mn in the 2021 high-demand post COVID era. MP The Brown was not included in that deal, but likely sold at a handsome profit too, as they were all sold to MSC.

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ZIM Qingdao in the Basin

 There was the rare sight of a ZIM ship in Bedford Basin today. The ship went out to anchor Friday evening from its normal berth at PSA Halifax. It returned to PSA this afternoon (December 12), but tied up at Pier 36-37 where it will not be able to work cargo, since that pier has no crane.

It is understood that the ship was detained by Ship Safety until repairs could be made. It was later cleared to sail at 2300 hrs.

The 41,482 gt, 50,689 dwt ship was built in 2006 by the Dalian New Shipbuilding Co in China, and has a capacity of 4250 TEU. The ship flies the Israeli flag and sails on the ZIM Atlantic service.

A miscellaneous sort of day

There was a little bit of everything today, with ships coming and going at all hours.

A huge gantry on the port side carries an ROV. The control umbilical runs to a spool. The gantry aft is used to carry various seaplows.

On the arrivals side, the cable ship Resolute arrived this morning and tied up at pier 25. It is a sister ship to Resolve and Discovery that are working on the Hibernia fibre optic transatlantic cable project. Also built by Keppel Hitachi in Singapore in 2002 it was originally called Tyco Resolute until 2010 when Tyco was reorganized. At 12,184 grt, it bears little resemblance to the early cable ships that were once based in Halifax.
However it does take advantage of a technology created by a captain of one of those ships.

One of several informative display panels at the cable wharf describes the work of Capt. Henry Melville Bloomer, inventor of the cable plow that dug a trench, laid the cable and buried it again in one operation. He was a resident of Halifax for fifteen years and was master of the Lord Kelvin.

 At pier 25 the ship shows off its large size to a spectator.

TE Subcom has some excellent illustrations of the ship's inner workings on their site. Go to "Reliance class features" at: http://www.subcom.com/process/install-and-test/fleet.aspx


An unusual looking product tanker arrived and anchored in the Basin:

Unlike the typical Korean built product tankers we usually see, Hector N. was built by Guangzhou International in Guangzhou, China. It was launched in 2008 as Meriom Gem, but was delivered as King Edgar for German owners. It moved to Panama flag for Navios Tankers of Greece in 2013. It is also smaller than most product tankers, at 24,112 grt, 38,402 dwt.

Its rather squat appearance distinguishes it from Korean built ships.

Things are slowly returning to normal at Autoport as cars are thawing out rapidly with warmer temperatures. The parade of auto carriers continues, with today's arrival of Artemis Leader, the second NYK ship in as this week. Even with the improvement in conditions, it will also take two days to complete cargo operations.

With the McAsphalt dock in the foreground, Artemis Leader unloads at Autoport.

The 62,571grt, 21,424 dwt ship was built in 2008 by Toyohashi Shipbuilding in Japan and is operated directly by NYK Line.

San Fernando Rey arrived for Nirint Lines on the regular service from Cuba with nickel sulfides and general cargo.

 This is the ship's second call. It was here first February 18. I gave the ship's interesting back story at that time, see: http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2015/02/san-fernanado-rey-for-nirint.html

Container ships Dallas Express at Fairview Cove and Dolphin II (for ZIM) and Zim Qingdao are all regular callers.

The Liberian flagged Zim Qingdao has been calling since it first visit June 29, 2007. It was built by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, in Dalian, China and has a capacity of 4250 TEU. On charter to Zim by Rickmers Reederei of Hamburg, it measures 41,482 grt, 50,689 dwt. It sailed for New York this afternoon from pier 42.

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Zim Qingdao - briefest visit - plus THE REAL STORY

1. Zim Qingdao sailing at 1300 hrs. There are no boxes on the aft-most bay.

Ships of ZIM Container Service are usually in port for a full working day, and sometimes longer. Today's visit of Zim Qingdao was certainly not typical - it lasted only a half day. It appears that the ship loaded some refrigerated containers and may have unloaded a few boxes too, but that was it.
Weather delays and re-routed cargoes on other ships are the likely explanations for this situation, as the ship may have had to skip some port calls to maintain schedule.

The real story
 I hear that the ship was turned back form New York because it was carrying 15 containers for Cuba. The US embargo on trade with Cuba has not been lifted (although President Obama has suggested that he would like to do so). Therefore the ship was sent back to Halifax to unload the boxes, then return to New York to carry on with its normal run.
Canada, and the port of Halifax have certainly benefited from the Cuban embargo for many years, with the presence of Melfi Lines and Nirint (which trade directly with Cuba)  and other lines such as Zim interchanging Cuban cargo in its hub port of Kingston, Jamaica.