Biggest yet or just big

The latest big ship to arrive in Halifax is CMA CGM Thalassa that put in this morning, before sunrise and will sail in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. That it is big, there is no doubt. It measures 128,600 gt, 131,831 dwt and 347.48m long x 45.2m breadth - but is it the biggest yet?

CMA CGM Thlassa takes up a lot of air space and berth space at Halterm.

However another ship, the much smaller Jennifer Schepers is able to squeeze into the remaining space at pier 42.

Last month's arrival CMA CGM Libra was acknowledged to be the biggest yet at the time, based on its measurements of 131,332 gt, 131,236 dwt  and 363.91m length x 45.66m breadth. It has greater length and greater deadweight tonnage (this greater carrying capacity in tonnes).

Where it gets tricky is the imprecise rating of carrying capacity in TEUs. CMA CGM Libra is rated (by CMA CGM) as 11,388 nominal TEUs, whereas CMA CGM Thalassa is 11,040 nominal TEUs. However when it comes to average container weight of 14 tonnes, Thalassa has a capacity of 8,106 and Libra 7,990 TEUs. Hard to explain.

And the winner is...............

I will stick with CMA CGM Libra based on dimensions, tonnage and nominal capacity, and give CMA CGM Thalassa an honourable mention.

In CMA CGM's current fleet of 505 ships,  375 are chartered and 130 are owned. There are also 19 on order or under construction.

CMA CGM Thalassa is among the chartered ships. Owners Global Ship Lease Ltd had the ship built in 2008 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Ltd in Okpo for charter to CMA CGM at a reported $47,200 per day until October 1, 2025. Global Ship Lease, a publicly traded company on the NYSE, is reportedly 45% owned by CMA CGM and has 19 ships, 17 of which are leased to CMA CGM.

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Ice Point, CLI Pride, and some harbour craft

The tanker Ice Point completed unloading at Nova Scotia Power, Tuft's Cove and sailed at noon time. [See earlier Shipfax post for more detail]

Ice Point in ballast heading for the St.Lawrence River.

The ship is headed for Lévis, QC. By coincidence its 2008 built sister ship Iron Point sailed from Lévis this morning, headed for Boston. The two ships will pass somewhere in the Gulf of St.Lawrence.

One feature of the Tuft's Cove terminal is that ships secure to mooring buoys and use line boats to take the head and stern lines to the buoys. (This is not unique in Halifax - the docks at Autoport and Irving Oil Woodside also require line boats.)

Boats from Connors Diving Services Ltd do the line boat duties for Nova Scotia Power, and their veteran work boat tender Divecom III does the honours, along with a smaller outboard. It also deploys the oil boom around the ship during unloading.

Divecom III heads back to base at the Armdale Yacht Club on the Northwest Arm.

Divecom III was built of wood in 1984 by Roy M. Doucette at Cape St.Mary, NS. That company has since switched to fibreglass and moved to nearby Yarmouth, NS. Present day boats are much larger and beamier - this one is a traditional style.

Connors Diving has other watercraft and by coincidence one of them passed my vantage point a few minutes later. Eastcom is a much newer vessel, dating from 2010 when it was constructed, of fibreglass, by Millennium Marine Inc of Escuminac, NB.

Eastcom returns to its base at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron.

It offered an opportunity to compare the favoured hull shapes from southwestern Nova Scotia  to those on the Northumberland Strait. 

Eastcom is in almost daily use in the harbour with various diving operations and rescue training. It also heads out to rendez-vous with ships off Halifax with charts, part and sometimes ice advisors.

Also sailing at noon time was a CLI Pride after a very short stay in Halifax. The ship only arrived this morning at Fairview Cove.

This is the ship's second call in Halifax in a month. Its last was January 7 [ see Shipfax post for more details ] when it arrived from Rotterdam. It sailed the same day, directly back to Rotterdam and returned to Halifax. It makes one wonder why they didn't use a larger ship and save a trip!

On departure the ship gave Liverpool, UK as its next port.

 

The ins and outs of it

Late afternoon today was the busiest I have seen Halifax in some time. In the space of little more than an hour there were two arrivals and three departures of large ships.

First off the mark was the autocarrier Hoegh Bangkok one of about 55 ships in the well known Norwegian fleet. The ship has been a caller here on several occasions.

Hoegh Bangkok has made the turn around the Ives Knoll buy and is outbound for the western channel. A continuous line of autorack rail cars stretches across the background.

Built in 2007 by Uljanik shipyard in Pula, Croatia, the ship has a capacity of 6500 CEU and measures 55,775 gt, 16,632 dwt. Its next port of call is Davisville, RI.

Next out was Vuoksi Maersk, a very new ship, delivered from the COSCO (Zhoushan) Shipyard Co in September. It made its first Halifax call December 8, 2018 on the Maersk / CMA CGM  Canada Atlantic Express. One of seven ships in a new "Baltic Feeder" or "V" class, reputed to be the world's largest ice class container ships, it also uses diesel fuel to comply with the latest emission standards. Despite its capability it was slowed by ice on its westbound leg to Montreal, so its arrival here was also delayed - it would normally have called on Saturday.

Easily distinguishable by the nearly plumb stem and high superstructure, the V-class are striking ships. Other ships of the class are trading to Russia, which explains the name.

A 34,882 grt, 39819 dwt ship it has a container capacity of 3596 TEU including a large reefer capacity of 600 TEU - ideal for the Canadian service.

Typical of ships trading to the St.Lawrence River, it is not loaded to capacity, to keep draft within safe limits.

Following close on its heels was the departing Budapest Bridge. Built in 2011 by Samsung it is a 46,441 gt, 58,200 dwt ship of 4526 TEU. It is one of five ships on the AL1 service operated by THE Alliance and ACL.

Owned by Seaspan Corporation it is on charter to K-Line, but is now the merged entity of K-Line, MOL and NYK called ONE Ocean Network Express.

The next ship was the inbound MOL Paramount also a ONE ship, but on THE Alliance's EC5 route.

Well loaded, the ship catches a few rays of late afternoon sun.

 

Built in 2005 by Koyo Dockyard in Mihare it is a 71,902 gt, 72,968 dwt ship with a capacity of 6350 TEU, including 500 reefers.  It is also third party owned, by Tokei KK Ltd, and on charter to ONE.

With the merger of the three Japanese container lines, ships will remain in their original colours for some time to come.  New ships are being delivered in the same eye-searing colour as the new ONE containers.

The last inbound was Atlantic Sail which would not be close before the light was gone. It was following the MOL Paramount to the Cerescorp terminal at Fairview Cove, which would have to dock first.

 Atlantic Sail looms out of the haze as Budapest Bridge makes its way to the pilot station.

 

 Dredging continues at Halterm, as it will for some time. The McNally dredge Derrick No.3 4 is working close in along the most recent Pier 42 extension.

The Port is under considerable pressure to upgrade facilities as new larger container ships are delivered. They will displace slightly smaller ships in a "cascade" effect that will see those ships coming to Halifax. Projections for increased terminal demand for 2019 remain around 4%, representing a world wide increase of 30 mn TEU to over 800 mn TEU in 2019. Terminal expansion is seen by many as a good investment despite market uncertainties brought on by Brexit and US-China and Canada-China disputes.

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Ice Point - why more oil

Ice Point

It is the time of year when we see ice class tankers more and more. Not that they require this capability for Halifax, but they are working the region. A case in point, so to speak, is Ice Point that arrived this morning for Nova Scotia Power's Tuft's Cove generating station on the Narrows.

The ship is one of five ice class 1A tankers in the PB Tankers fleet. Built in 2007 by STX Shipbuilding, Jinhae, South Korea, it is mostly indistinguishable from other tankers of its type. At 30,119 gt, 50,922 dwt it is slightly larger than the usual maximum of 50,000 dwt.

However its full width bridge is not typical, and usually signifies a ship built for winter conditions. I imagine the crew appreciates the air conditioned bridge in tropical climes too.

The ship's owner is PB Tankers SpA of Palermo, Italy, which is part of the Pietro Barbaro Group (hence the stylized "B" on the funnel.) A sister tanker Iron Point is currently docked at the Jean-Gaulin refinery in Lévis (Quebec City) where its ice classification puts it in very good stead. [see yesterday's Tugfax post].

Why More Oil

The Nova Scotia Power generating plant was built in stages in the 1960s and 1970s, and in 2000 was converted to burn oil or natural gas. Since then new natural gas turbine generators have been added and the  plant has been burning almost exclusively gas since then.

However the plant still maintains oil storage on site, and last August 2 a spill occurred, that was blamed on a corroded pipe. A large cleanup effort ensued that involved replacing 150 linear meters of shoreline rip rap boulders. The work was declared completed December 5.

The Eastern Canada Response Corp, the oil cleanup organization owned by several oil companies, was called in at the outset and organized the work.  ECRC's oil cleanup barge , John P. Oxley, which had been stationed in Halifax since it was built in 2001, was not available. It was towed out to Sydney, NS June 9, 2018 and has never returned.
 

 The barge John P. Oxley leaves Halifax in tow of the Lois M.

Does the arrival of more oil at Tuft's Cove signal a return to oil burning at the plant? With the shutdown of Nova Scotia's offshore gas, perhaps Bunker C is more attractive. However the notable improvement in air quality around the plant has been a major benefit of the switch to gas. Soot from the three 500 foot tall smokestacks has all but disappeared in the Tuft's Cove area.

The only disruption to the natural environment seems to have been the oil spill. The resident seals and birds in the area were reportedly scared away during the cleanup by noise generators.  

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Lomur for Eimskip

It was an icy initial trip for the latest addition to the Eimskip fleet. Lomur arrived this morning with a substantial build up of frozen spray forward, coating masts and containers several feet thick in places.

Lomur is a rather small ship for the route, and like a lot of small feeder types has a superstructure piled up aft, which must be an uncomfortable place in rolling seas. Ships on the Eimskip Green Line do not have much opportunity to head south to make wide arcs around bad weather [see yesterday's post] They are on a schedule and must make a bee line for the next port. Therefore they get whatever weather is coming.

Measuring only 4454 gt, 5560 dwt, with a capacity of 505 TEU and equipped with a pair of 40 tonne cranes, Lomur was built in 2002 as Frisia by Qinshan Shipyard in Wuhan. It was delivered as Apolo, renamed Anja in 2003 and Ruby in 2010. The name Lomur was applied in 2015 and the ship registered in Gibraltar. It is operated by Briese Schiffs on behalf of a German ownership syndicate. 

Before sailing for Portland, ME this morning, the ship carried out a compass swing in number one anchorage. Perhaps they will find some warmer water en route, otherwise there will be a lot of work for someone to break free all those containers on deck forward.

Note the pilot rope ladder deployed just aft of midships, where there is a gap in the deck load. No wonder pilots find it unsafe to board certain ships in some conditions.

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EF Ava- another lost life, APL Vancouver - another fire

EF Ava, one of three ships operating on Eimskip's weekly Green Line (Reykjavik / Argentia / Halifax / Portland / Halifax  / Argentia  / Reykjavik was en route from Argentia to Reykjavik January 29 when it was struck by a large wave. The ship's master, a Polish national, lost his balance and hit his head. The ship was 700 miles off Rekjavik, well outside helicopter range, and  nothing could be done to save the man's life. He died before the ship reached port on January 31.

The ship began calling here in July on a charter to Eimskip from German owners. It is registered in Madeira (Portugal). Its last call in Hailfax was on January 17, westbound. It skipped its January 21 eastbound stop.

The third ship on the Eimskip rotation will be Lomur arriving in Halifax for the first time tomorrow.


Off Vietnam, fire broke out on the container ship APL Vancouver . The ship, a 9200 TEU vessel last called in Halifax October 27 on the Columbus JAX route, but has since been reassigned.  A major response by the Vietnamese Coast Guard was hampered at first by severe weather. From photos and accounts online, the fire began below deck in containers closer to the bridge than midships..
 

The ship was en route from Shekou to Singapore when the fire broke out January 31, and the ship diverted to Vietnamese waters for assistance.

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Join the Crowd at Pier 9

The cargo ship Unistar managed to find a parking spot at the Richmond Terminals piers this afternoon. It was able to squeeze in at the far north end of Pier 9C to load a cargo of large diameter pipe.

The German owned, Antigua and Barbuda flagged ship was built by Jiangsu Yangzi Chinbo Shpyard in Jingjiang in 2012 as Sinus Roris. It was soon renamed Thorco Aurora and carried that name until 2017 when it became Unitrader. The 6351 gt, 9688 dwt ship arrived in ballast from Belledune, NB. After picking its way through ice in the Gulf, it picked up some frozen spray on its way down the coast.

The crowd at Richmond terminals included, (left to right)
At Pier 9 the Horizon Enabler at IT International Telecom, fitting out for a cable job.
At Pier 9B the tanker Kivalliq W. cleaning up after a generator compartment fire. Work must be completed as the ship will be moving to Imperial Oil tonight to finish unloading.
At Pier 9C south the ferry Fundy Rose in for its annual refit. The hard working Digby-Saint John ship is due to return to service on or about February 25.
The tug Atlantic Willow is just standing off to meet the next inbound, and at its bow is the standby vessel Atlantic Tern. Its orange hull is barely visible.
And Unitrader has just been secured at Pier 9 north. It is deploying one of its cranes to assist with bunkering
Farther south (out of the picture at the left) the McNally dredging plant is tied up for the weekend. 

The next inbound was a similar looking ship, Bandara. However it was built by the Shipyard Zaliv* in Kerch, Ukraine in 2010. The 5425 gt, 7120 dwt ship flies the Dutch flag.

Bandura passes a frigid Africville Park.

Carrying a shipment of spent uranium casks on deck, the ship was bound for Fairview Cove to unload. The casks are carried in container frames and are trucked to the US for processing. Perhaps due to the nature of the cargo, and the breezy conditions the ship was assigned two pilots and took two tugs (Atlantic Larch is on the starboard side). The ship is likely on charter to Spliethoff's, since that company has been carrying this cargo recently.

[* The Zaliv shipyard is located in the Crimea, in an area illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. The shipyard was seized and taken over by what may have been Russian forces. In any event it is currently shuttered.]

Also off Africville the survey launch Sea Quest [Registration Number C28064NS) was going over the dumping ground for fill from Halterm dredging. The boat belongs to CSR Geo Surveys and was quietly going about its business. It is the same boat that was blockaded by fishermen in Pictou last year in a dispute over a proposed effluent discharge pipe from the Northern Pulp mill.

The boat is a locally designed and built Rosborough RF-246 and is powered by twin outboards.

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