More than cars for Carmen

Wallenius Lines' car carrier Carmen made a visit to the Halifax side of the harbour this afternoon, after discharging a shipment of automobiles at Autoport. Sailing for Wallenius-Wilhelmsen Lines, the ship arrived at Autoport about 1700 hrs yesterday and moved across the harbour at noon time today.
 

A forklift scurries by as Carmen prepares to sail at 1600 hrs this afternoon.

Built in 2011 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering of Okpoo, South Korea, the 74,258 grt, 30,140 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,934 cars. However it is its ability to carry other oversize and heavy objects that brought it to pier 31. The ship has hoistable car decks in some areas within the hull to accommodate other cargo. It also has a stern ramp with 320 tonnes capacity to allow those objects to roll on or off the ship.

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Its official CMA CGM + NOL APL

CMA CGM's $2.43bn offer for NOL was tendered on Monday December 7 and promptly accepted by NOL's largest shareholder Temasek.

The offer, at 6% above the latest closing price comes after four years of losses and will see Temasek "selling" its $2.9bn debt to CMA CGM, which already has a debt of $5bn. Not surprisingly CMA CGM will begin a major asset sale, since it is borrowing the money to make the purchase.

Temasek, which controls 67% of NOL, paid twice per share, compared to what they are now getting, when they upped their ownership from 29% in 2004.

We may start to see APL boxes on the Columbus loop.

NOL's container line, APL is 13th largest in the world by capacity, and the combined lines (before asset sales) represents a ship capacity of 2.33 mn TEU and 11.5% of the world's capacity with 563 vessels.

It is an ill wind that blows no good, but will APL be gutted?

 

The combined entity would also represent 12% of transpacific trade capacity as against Maersk's 9%. Such a huge swath will certainly affect the smaller players and may also shuffle some of the current alliances. It will be interesting to see how CMA CGM handles swallowing such a huge pill.

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CMA CGM Vivaldi back again

CMA CGM Vivaldi arrived today on the CMA CGM / UASC / CSCL Columbus Loop service. On August 3 it was the first CMA CGM ship to call in Halifax on this service. Now 18 weeks later it has completed the "loop" and is back again. [I missed it the first time since I was out of town.]

CMA CGM Vivaldi was built in 2004 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea. It measures 90,745 grt, 100,400 dwt and has a capacity of 8238 TEU (including 700 reefers)

The CMA CGM service was not officially inaugurated until the September 13-14 call of CMA CGM Melisande, which was covered here: http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2015/09/big-day-at-halterm.html
The service got off a to bit of a slow start with ships every two to three weeks, but has been weekly since October, with the ships usually here on Saturday or Sunday.

The ships arrive directly from Suez without stops, then go on to New York, Norfolk and Savannah before heading back to the Far East.

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Bigger bulker - Equinox Star, and more bulk bags from Helga

Today's arrival was another bulker, slightly larger than yesterday's arrival.

Equinox Star measures 33,231 grt, 58,680 dwt, making it too large for the St.Lawrence Seaway. However with a visit for bunkers, and in ballast, at this time of year it is likely that it is headed for a St.Lawrence River port to load grain. [At time of writing ca.2100 hrs AST, the bunkering tanker Algoma Dartmouth was undergoing pump repairs, and was unable to deliver the fuel.] [By about 2200 it did get underway.]
UPDATE: Bad Guess! The ship is headed for Lome, Togo!

Built by Nantong COSCO KHI* in Nantong, China in 2011 and described as a Supramax, the ship carries four 30 tonne cranes each with its own 12.5 cbm grab bucket stowed on deck. It also has the vertical bow and non-projecting bulb that has been found to be more efficient for ships that do not make high speeds. It also allows the hull to be fuller forward to maximize carrying capacity. The very basic accommodation block aft and slender funnel speaks to the drive for minimizing costs in the competitive bulker business. The ship is owned by Equinox Maritime Ltd of Athens, Greece and flies the Cayman Islands flag.

The Cayman registry used to be the haven for yachts owned by wealthy persons with assets parked offshore to avoid taxes. It has recently become more respectable for commercial shipping, but it is still rare to see a very new and well found ship registered in that country.
For more on this ship see http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2015/09/sunday-round-up-autoports-safety-valve.html

* Kawaski Heavy Industroes (KHI) of Japan is a 50/50 partner with China COSCO Holdings Co Ltd in two Chinese shipyards DACKS = Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering and NACKS = Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering.

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Meanwhile at pier 31 the Netherlands flag Helga was busy offloading the latest cargo of nickel sulfides from Cuba for Nirint Lines. The ship is managed by Wagenborg Shipping BV for a single ship company of Van Dijk Rederij. It has been used on a series of charters. Built in 2009 as Helga it was renamed Kent Atlas in 2010 (serving the Irving owned Kent Line) , 2012: Helga, 2013: Clipper Avalon, 2014: Thorco Tribute and reverted to its original name again in 2015.


It is also the product of a Chinese shipyard, this one 100% owned by the Dutch shipbuilder Damen, and located in Yichang, China. The ship is also a standard design CF 12000 [combi-freigher, 12,000 tonnes deadweight] to carry a wide variety of bulk and break bulk cargoes and has a capacity of 684 TEU. It also has two 80 tonne cranes, which were in use today lifting spreader loads of bagged cargo.

Forklifts big and small race around with bagged cargo as the ship discharges spreader loads of the cargo. Some bags are loaded directly onto railroad gondola cars, and others are stored in the warehouse.

It was no where near as nice a day June 21 when the ship was here for the first time. With its cranes neatly stowed, and the hatches left clear for cargo operations, it still managed to carry a small number of containers on deck.

MarBacan for pier 28

MarBacan makes its way inbound as Maersk Penang takes the western channel to give it room. HMCS Halifax follows inbound for a quick turn around. 

The bulk carrier MarBacan* tied up at pier 28 this afternoon to top up its cargo. The ship entered the St.Lawrence Seaway on November 10 and unloaded cargo at Toledo, OH and Marinette, WI, and on November 24 arrived in Goderich, ON where it loaded grain to Seaway maximum draft.
It sailed November 28 and made its way back down through the Seaway, exiting at Montreal December 2.

With tugs made fast, Marbacan continues in. Just above the bow tug, the ship exhibits some frozen spray - the first sighting of that commodity this season.

MarBacan now flies the flag of Portuguese Madeira for owners MarConsult Schiffahrts of Hamburg. However until March of this year it was named Fritz under Liberian registry and ran for Intersee Schiffahrtsges, also of Germany. The ship was built in 2010 by Wuhu Xinlian, Wuhu (Sanshin), China. It measures 20,491 grt, 29,618 dwt and carries three 30 tonne deck cranes.

Owners MarConsult display their initials on the bow.

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* Bacan is an island group in Indonesia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacan_islands

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Marina L pit stop

The Liberian flag bulk carrier Marina L put in to Halifax Thursday evening for bunkers.It was not the only ship in for bunkers, the tanker Furuholmen arrived earlier, but also left under cover of darkness. Due to gales over night the operation was delayed until Friday morning, when Algoma Dartmouth could come alongside safely.

Marina L was built as Brilliant Moira for Japanese owners Aono Kaiun KK, but was snapped up earlier this year by Evaland Shipping of Athens and renamed. The slump in bunker demand probably meant that Evaland got a very good deal, on virtually brand new ship.

The ship was built by Imara Shipbuilding  in Japan, part of the I-S Group of nine shipyards that claims more than 30% of Japan's shipbuilding output.

The ship comes in at 17,027 grt, 28,384 dwt and carries four cargo handling cranes serving five holds. One of the ships folding hatches has been opened slightly, allowing some light for the crew as they clean the hold. Intense cleaning is usually a good sign that the ship will be loading a grain cargo.


Marina L sailed Friday afternoon for Montreal. Due to the lateness of the season, I would guess that the ship is not headed for the Great Lakes, and is likely to load a cargo of grain in Montreal.

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USS Milwaukee

The latest Freedom class Littoral combat ship of the United States Navy arrived in Halifax late yesterday afternoon. It anchored in the lower harbour and early this afternoon moved in to HMC Dockyard for the weekend.

USS Milwaukee LCS 5 was built by Marinette Marine in Wisconsin. Its keel was laid October 27, 2011 and it was launched December 18, 2013. After commissioning in Milwaukee November 21, 2015 it made its way down the Great Lakes stopping in Detroit for the US Thanksgiving weekend. The tug Océan Ross Gaudreault met the ship in Lake Erie and escorted it down through the Seaway to Montreal. (The first ship in the series, USS Freedom got banged up a bit when it locked through the Seaway in 2008.)

The pilot boat stood by the ship for some time as it struggled to get underway, and to get the tug Atlantic Willow secured in gusty winds.

From that first ship, and the second, USS Fort Worth, fine tuning and trials have turned up scores of changes and improvements in the design and construction, but according to Lockheed the design has now been "locked in ".

We could expect a similar process with Canada's new frigate replacements, so even cost estimates that are outdated now need to allow for lot of unknowns.

The ship will remain in Halifax until Monday when it will sail with an eventual destination of its base in San Diego.

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