MOL Empire first time

MOL Empire made its first appearance in Halifax today on what seems to be a once only call.

MOL Empires inbound past Maugher's Beach.

The ship is lightly smaller than the usual MOL ships we see on Alliance service.  Built in 2010 by Hyundai Heavy Industry in Ulsan, this ship measures out at 54,940 gt and 67,170 dwt with a container capacity of 5087, including 330 reefers. The "P" class ships that are regular callers carry 6350 TEUs with 500 reefers.

With tug assistance the ship passes through the Narrows en route to Fairview Cove.

The ship arrived from New York and is headed for Rotterdam and European ports on the AL1 service before switching to the AL5 service for its next transatlantic trip to southern US ports and the Pacific coast.

The ONE houseflag.

A much tattered ONE house flag apparently flies forward on the jack staff at all times, judging by its condition. It is not quite the official ONE magenta colour anymore (it looks more red) with Ocean Network Express spelled out below the ONE also in whitre lettters. The ONE flag is an acknowledgement that the ship sails for the joint venture of NYK (38%) , K-Line (31%) and MOL (31%) formed in 2018 to merge the three competing Japanese container lines. The merged entity is a partner in THE Alliance with HAPAG-Lloyd, Yang Ming and Hyundai Merchant Marine.

The Washington "W" also appears somewhat tattered.

Nevertheless the ship is still owned by Seaspan Corp, the Dennis Washington owned international container ship financing operation that currently owns more than 100 ships. All are leased out to shipping lines. The Seattle-based Washington also owns the Seaspan interests in British Columbia, including the shipyards and tug boat company, but Seaspan Corp is operated independently and trades on the NYSE.

This week Seaspan Corp announced the acquisition of six ships (as yet not identified) for $350 mn (USD). That will swell the owned fleet to 119 ships, with a total capacity now exceeding more than 1 mn TEU or 7.7% of the global container capacity of 23 mn TEU.

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Glovis Countess and a strike

Glovis Countess arrived at Autoport this morning for what I believe to be the first time. The 60,213 gt, 18,701 dwt ship was built in 2010 by Mitsubishi Heavy in Nagasaki as CSAV Rio Geike. It changed names in 2013, and current owners are associated with Dong-A Tankers (hence the DAT on the funnel), a major South Korean ship operator. The ship has a capacity of 5,221 cars.

Glovis Countess has rounded Ives Knoll and is headed for Eastern Passage and Autoport.

The Dong-A Tanker company sought creditor protection in April 2019, but it is unclear if DAT Countess Maritime SA (owners of this ship) and DAT Maritime Co Ltd (technical managers) are involved in those proceedings.

Once off the Autoport berth tugs swung the ship to come alongside starboard side to.

Autoport is owned and operated by CN and as of this morning some three thousand CN conductors and yard workers were on strike. Autorack rail cars were still being switched at Autoport, but that may not last for long if management tries to take on operating jobs.

The ship arrived from New York, so must be loading export cargo, which would already be on the pier waiting to load, so not likely effected by the strike.

Originally due yesterday, the ship spent the night off St.Margaret's Bay after pilotage operations were suspended. There was still some swell running today, but conditions were much more benign.

Glovis Countess inbound with a residual swell.

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More Comparison

I did not expect to see such an obvious difference between yesterday's arrival and today's departure of YM Modesty.

The ship's after deck has noticeably more boxes than it did coming in.  I count seven tiers (except on the top) today whereas some of the stacks were only five or six high yesterday.

(picture from yesterday for comparison)

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Don't Say No Comparison

With the same ships returning to Halifax time after time for years on end, it is easy to become blase and to ignore the repeaters. There may be something to learn however from seeing the same ship in the same setting after different times.

Westbound (that is arriving in North America) the ship is always heavily loaded. Once it has completed its US calls and turns Eastbound it is more lightly loaded and has fewer boxes on deck. The trade imbalance of imports versus exports becomes pretty obvious as does the quandary of how to return empty boxes to Asia when there is no revenue in doing so.

YM Modesty is one of those repeaters, as it shows up regularly for the Alliance, both eastbound and westbound. Its arrival today on the Eastbound leg gives an opportunity for such comparisons.

Today: Eastbound

November 2: Westbound

July 20 2018: westbound

Some rather obvious things jump out to me:

First: the ship was more deeply loaded westbound in 2018.

Second: the ships was more deeply loaded eastbound in 2018.

Third: slightly more empties (on the after deck) in 2019 eastbound.

Note also the many new or newly repainted ONE (Ocean Network Express) boxes in 2019, indicating that the merger of the three primary Japanese container lines (K-Line, NYK and MOL) is slowly taking effect. Are they scrapping old boxes - effectively abandoning them in the west, and building new ones in the east?

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More Gypsum To Go

There has been a real run on gypsum lately with another load going out today. This time it is a domestic load, on CSL's Salarium a Canadian flag self-unloader.

Salarium docks stern in to make it easier for the shoreside ship loader to function.

(The ship does not seem to have loaded much in the 23 hours it had been alongside when I took this  photo this morning.)

The ship is on long term charter to carry salt from Mines Seleines in the Magdalen Islands, but that does not take up all its time, so it is free to pursue other work when it is available. In October the ship even made one of its rare calls to the Great Lakes. 

On that trip (its first since 2017) it went to Windsor*, ON, loaded salt for Twin Ports (Duluth / Superior) WI, then loaded iron ore pellets at Two Harbours, WI for Quebec City. It seems to have come directly from that assignment to Halifax to load gypsum - by passing the Magdalen Islands en route.

[*The salt mine in Windsor, ON is owned by K+S Windsor Salt, also owners of Mines Seleines.]

As a Canadian flag ship (built in 1980 as Nanticoke, 21,870 gt, summer draft capacity 35,100 tons) the ship can deliver its gypsum cargo to a Canadian port. The ship was renamed in 1990 when it was chartered to la Soçiété Québecoise d'Exploration Minière [SOQUEM]. Normally the ship keeps running well into the winter, and lays up in Montreal during the most severe ice conditions.

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Verity for Tampa

Algoma Verity sailed this morning for Tampa, Fl with its cargo of gypsum.

Transiting the Narrows gives a view of the grab crane/ hopper/ conveyor self-unloading system. 

The ship took two days to load - a bit longer than most ships, likely due to having to work around the awkward self-unloading system, but also because some of the gypsum in National Gypsum's Wright's Cove stockpile may have been frozen. [see also yesterday's post.]

Reading the ship's draft marks forward (midships have been obliterated) it appears the ship is drawing about 11.5m which would represent 47 to 48,000 deadweight tonnes - very close to the ship's winter capacity. See the ship's spec sheet - especially the pdf attachment:https://www.cslships.com/en/csl-americas/fleet/vessels-and-specs/algoma-verity

The Narrows was the place to be today - see Tugfax for more of the action.

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Follow ups

Less than ideal photos of several ships recently left a challenge to do a bit better.

The November 9 photo of Atlantic Sky alongside Fairview Cove taken from Granbury Place in Fairview was one of those, and today's ideal conditions gave a chance to catch the ship as it approached the MacKay bridge inbound.

The ship is on the eastbound leg of its trip and is due to sail over night for Liverpool.

I wasn't able to improve much on the July 18 [http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/07/harbour-round-up.html  ] photo of Algoma Verity but today's shot does underline the point that when Algoma took over the former Alice Oldendorff they did not plan to do much repainting.

In today's photo, the shoreside traveling loader is working on the forward holds, and so the unloading boom is not swung out over the dock, but is raised to allow the loader access to the hatches.

The green spar buoy is H-39 Seaview Point, and opposite Bedford Institute and marks the  entrance to the Narrows from Bedford Basin.

[No there is no view of the sea, but that was the name for a park in the area. In 2011 the park was renamed Africville Park officially, in recognition of the community that was located in the area until the 1960s . When Africville was razed to build the bridge approaches and as part of so called urban renewal, the area not used for the roadways was made into a park and named Seaview Park. A community church in the area, named Seaview African United Baptist Church was demolished in 1969. As part of the civic apology for the mis-treatment of Africville residents in 2002, a replica church has been built, the area has been declared a national historic site and the park renamed. ]

A sculpture in the park pays tribute to the Africville residents who died in the Halifax Explosion - largely unrecognized. The community was severely damaged in the 1917 blast that occurred  nearby.

Also arriving today is the Zim feeder Hansa Meersburg referenced October 31 when it made its first call: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/10/tropical-surprise-and-mystery-guest.html

Arriving just at sunset, the ship caught a few last rays.

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