Comings and Goings

There were a good many arrivals and departures in the Port of Halifax today (March 9), particularly in the lower harbour and southend.

MOL Charisma (see yesterday's post) sailed from the PSA Halifax Gateway, where it had been accommodated instead of its usual berthing at PSA Fairview Cove.

The southend terminal remained busy however with Oceanex Sanderling alongside and with the arrival of MSC Nadriely on MSC's Canada Express 1 service from Montreal for the Mediterranean.

 The ship was built in 1998 by Kvaerner Warnow Werft in Warnemunde and is a 26,029 gt, 33,977 dwt vessel with a capacity of 2468 TEU including 320 reefers. It also carries three 45 tonne SWL cranes.
Laid down as Alicia and delivered as Charlotta it has since carried ten more names: 1998: CGM Gaugin; 2000: CMA CGM Gaugin; 2001: Lykes Traveller; 2001: Alianca Rotterdam; 2002: Columbus Chile; 2004: Alianca Hong Kong; 2006: CCNI Guayas; 2012: Helvetia; 2014: MSC Nadriely.

The ship arrived from Montreal to top up cargo to ocean draft, and interestingly also appears to have taken on bunkers. St.Lawrence draft restrictions are such that ships cannot load to maximum draft in Montreal, which restricts the amount of cargo (or fuel) that the ship can carry. The two fuel trucks that I saw were likely from Quebec (both GHL Transport and Contrans are part of TFI International, which has termainals all over North America, including Quebec) - certainly an unusual situation. It apparently made more sense to send several tonnes of fuel to Halifax by truck in order to maximize cargo out of Montreal.

 

Also arriving in the Ocean Terminals was the Nirint Shipping vessel Gotland with its usual consignment of nickel sulfides from Cuba.

 

 

Gotland is a general purpose / heavy lift ship, configured to carry containers, general and breakbulk. At 12,772 gt, 17,409 dwt the ship has a capacity of 834 TEU including 60 reefers. It also carries three cranes, two of 150 tonnes capacity (and combinable) and one of 80 tonnes capacity.

 

The ship was built in 2011 by the Xinshun Shipyard Group Co Ltd in Yueqing, China as Rickmers Tianjin, one of more than 100 ships in the venerable Rickmers fleet. Dating back to 1834 and the age of sail, the Hamburg based, family owned company failed rather spectacularly in 2017.  However this ship had been previously sold in 2015 to Gotland Schiffahrts GmbH and renamed Gotland.

After unloading in Halifax, the Gotland will sail for Barcelona and Rotterdam before beginning another cycle.

Autoport handled the familiar Siem Aristotle which sailed in the late afternoon, with the Morning Courier arriving shortly after. The latter ship will move to Pier 9C tomorrow to discharge RoRo cargo.

 PSA Fairview Cove was not idle either, with the weekly visitor Nohan Ava loading for Argentia and St-Pierre. Also arriving was the NYK Delphinus on THE Alliance's AL5 service.

 

The 55,487 grt, 65,950 dwt ship dates from 2007 when it was delivered by Hyundai, Ulsan. It has a capacity of 4922 TEU. 

Owners NYK Line are partners in ONE (Ocean Network Express) with MOL and K-Line, but have no plans to rename the ship or to re-paint it in ONE magenta.

.

 

Where the twain shall meet

 "East is east and west is west..." but the twain can meet in Halifax, when the two container terminals, under common PSA management, arrange for two ships to cross tracks. THE Alliance's EC5 service calls in Halifax both eastbound and westbound, and to ensure that there are no delays, the Southend Gateway terminal can take a ship that would normally call at Fairview Cove when that facility is also handling a ship.

Today, March 7 saw the Hyundai Courage arriving on the westbound EC5 run, from Cai Mep, Vietnam (January 29), Singapore (February 1-2), Colombo (February 6-7), Suez (February 15-16), berthing as usual at Fairview Cove.

As presently configured Fairvew Cove can accommodagte only one ship of this size at a time, but can devote its three cranes the ship.  The 95,681 gt, 99,052 dwt Hyundai Courage, built in 2008 by Hyundai HI, Ulsan has a capacity of 8,562 TEU.

When THE Alliance was formed by Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Yang Ming, Hyundai Merchant Marine was in poor finanacial shape, and was only allowed provisional membership until it was on sound footing. The South Korean government stepped in to stabilize the company, now known as HMM Co Ltd. It is now a full member of the group and is looking to privatise. The company operates about 26 ships with a dozen on order.

The westbound EC5 ship is MOL Charisma which also arrived this morning, but tied up at Pier 41, where it is difficult to see from the shore.

 The ship is a 86,692 gt, 90,390 dwt vessel with a capacity of 9060 TEU, including 630 reefers. Due to its size, it is just about as large a ship as can be accommodated at Fairview Cove, and depending on its water draft, it might not have clearance under the harbour bridges. On a previous visit in August 2022, it also docked at PSA Halifax Gateway.

MOL Charisma arriving August 30, 2022.

As stated the ship is on the eastbound leg of the EC5 run, from New York (February 17-19), Savannah (February 21-23), Jacksonville (February 24-25), Norfolk March 4-5). Halifax is its last North American stop before heading to Asia via Suez.

PSA Halifax Gateway (Southend terminal) was also handling the 1145 TEU Tropic Hope at Pier 42, using the terminal's smaller cranes.

.

CMA CGM Lyra

 CMA CGM Lyra arrived at Pier 41 early this morning March 5, positioned to use PSA Halifax's largest cranes.

Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan delivered the ship to CMA CGM The French Line in 2011. It is the last of twelve ships of the Andromeda class, built from 2009 on. Due to economic conditions at the time of completion, the ship was mothballed for ten months before entering service in May 20, 2011.

With tonnages of 131,332 gt and 131,266 dwt, the ship has a capacity of 11,200 TEU (11,388 theoretical) , including 800 reefers. This makes it a NeoPanamax class vessel. It must also be among the largest shps built with all accommodation aft. Most ships of the 10,000 TEU+ size have an island bridge structure farther forward to provide adequate visibility over the bow. This ship's bridge is extremely high - about 125 ft above the waterline. The ship also has capacity for seven passenges with six double and one single cabins and a swimming pool.

The ship is sailing on the Ocean Alliance joint CMA CGM / COSCO / Evergreen / OOCL service from Asia via Suez. Ships on this "Columbus JAX" service usually sailed directly from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Halifax, but this ship stopped in Tanger Med, Morocco. It will sail late this evening for New York.

The ship is new to this service, having previously operated Asia / Europe. It was in the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, 1.5 kms from the fertilizer explosion that killed at least 218, injured 7,000 and left 300,000 homeless. The explosion, estimated as the equivalant of 1.1 kilotons of TNT fell well short of the 2.9 kilotons estimate for the Halifax Explosion of December 6, 1917 which killed 1,782 and injured 9,000. The CMA CGM Lyra was not damaged, but one CMA CGM shore employee died and many of the 261 other staff members were effected by the disaster. CMA CGM stepped in with aid and emergency logistics relief on a large scale, to assist the port and the country in recovery.

.

Meet starboard to starboard

 When ships "meet" they usually do so "port to port" following the rules of the road agreed upon by seafarers for centuries. However they may also meet starboard to starboard by mutual agreement. That is much easier when the two ships can communicate verbally, and in a common language.

Such was the case today March 4, when the inbound MSC Melissa met the outbound Atlantic Sky just off the south end of PSA Halifax's Pier C. The pilots on the two ships had agreed on the meet by VHF radio and carefully adjusted their speeds to coordinate the passing.

The Atlantic Sky is eastbound for Liverpool, UK and has hardly any containers on deck - a sure sign of a sagging economy. 

MSC Melissa is not new to Halifax - it was here previously on July 13, 2021 for Canadian Food Inspection Agency clearance en route from New York to Montreal. This time it is eastbound on MSC's Indusa service from US East Coast ports to Saudi Arabia, India and Sri Lanka.

Built for MSC in 2002  by Hyundai, Ulsan, the 73,819 gt, 85,786 dwt vessel has a capacity of 6730 TEU including 400 reefers. 

 With the tugs Atlantic Fir forward and Altantic Beaver aft the MSC Melissa made its way in to Pier 42. Heavy snow fall (about 30 cm, close to a foot) March 2-3 has been cleared away at the terminal, so should not cause delays.

.

Thorco Legacy - in the news. Well sort of.

 Many ships show up in Halifax only once and unless they are assigned to a regular line, never to return.  They are soon forgotten (almost) unless they make the news in some other port.

Such is the case for two ships that have visited Halifax in the past year or so. The cargo ship Thorco Legacy spent some time in Halifax this winter. The ship arrived on December 22, 2022 and went directly to anchor in Bedford Basin.

The ship remained at anchor until January 7 when it moved to Pier 9B to be fitted with racks to transport sub sea fibreoptic cable. When that work was completed, the ship made a brief sea trial on January 20, then left port on January 21 for Portsmouth, NH where fibreoptic cable is manufactured.

The ship remained in Portsmouth from February 2 to 23, I assumed, loading cable. The process of loading cable is slow work as it is carefully nested in the racks without exceeding its bending radius.

A current report indicates that the Thorco Legacy is now in Freeport, Bahamas with the cable ship Durable, but not to transfer cable to the cable ship but to remove cable. The Durable had damage to a main propulsion thruster and put in to Freeport on February 22. Thorco Legacy sailed from Portsmouth directly to Freeport, arriving February 26. It is to take on board the Durable's cable - a 21 day process. Durable will then go to Charleston for repairs in drydock, then rejoin the Thorco Legacy to reload the cable.

 The Durable has also been in Halifax too, arriving August 12, 2021, and possibly on other occasions including March 30, 2022.

.

Costco Bows Out

 The big box US retailer Costco has bowed out of ship chartering and has paid a big price for the experience.

In late 2021, frustrated with unreliable delivery dates and sky high shipping charges, Costco decided to charter three ships for three year terms at a quoted $42,000 per day each. They did so through the US shipping company Pasha Hawaii, as Costo had no in house ship operating experience. In March 2022 it was reported that they had charted four more ships for a total of seven. The ships would operate from China to the US east coast and Halifax, using a large supply of new containers rented from Triton for Costco's exclusive use. 

Carpathia was the first of the charters to call in Halifax.

Carpathia sails on August 23, 2022 loaded with new containers dedicated to Costco.

AS Carlotta in the Narrows October 15, 2022.It appeared to have a few light coloured - non-reefer - boxes in the mix.

 It was not long however before regret began to set in as cargo rates and ship charter rates collapsed during 2022. Nevertheless Costco claimed to have saved betwen $1,000 and $2,000 on 50,000 containers they transported on their "own" ships (about 20% of the company's needed capacity). Rates for containers on the transpacific peaked at about $40,000 and are now around $1,000 ($2,000 to the east coast). There is also an estimated glut of 5 million TEUs of idle containers world wide. To add insult to injury, the scores of new container ships to be delivered over the next two years will depress vessel values substantiallly, and increase pressure on rates.

 

 

Protostar N was in Halifax Nov 27, 2022, but by passed Halifax on its call in Baltimore February 5, 2023 and headed directly for the Mediterranean.

 In December 2022 Costco opted to exit the charters and pay early cancellation penalties of $93 million. All the ships were still underway or committed with Costco cargo, so the cancellations came into effect at the last US port, which seems to have been Baltimore.

What is to become of all the "several thousand" rented containers is a good question.

 The last ship under the charter is believed to be the Queen Esther which is due in Saint John, NB for March 3, 2023. It was also likely the last Costco charter to call in Halifax when it was here in December.

Queen Esther at Fairview Cove December 9, 2022.

.

 

 

Algoma Discovery

 News reports from Port Colborne, ON indicate that a fire in the engine room of the Algoma Discovery on Monday February 27 was extinguished before it spread to the rest of the ship. So far there has been little information on the amount of damage caused by the fire that generated copious quantities of smoke.

Normally a Great Lakes bulk carrier would not warrant much coverage here however this ship does have a Halifax and Shipfax connection. Delivered in 1987 by 3 Maj. Brodogradiliste in Rijeka, Croatia, the ship was built to then Seaway maximum size of 729 ' x 75'-9". It measured 23,306 gt, 35,542 dwt and as Malinska traded to the Great Lakes in season and internationally in winter. The now defunct Misener Transportation Ltd chartered the ship in 1988 and in 1997 it was sold to Viken Shipping AS of Norway. Renamed Daviken it continued its usual trade patterns and was a regular user of the St.Lawrence Seaway on charter to Fednav.

In 2008 the Algoma Central Corp of St.Catharines, ON bought the ship and renamed it Algoma Discovery. Unusually however it remained in internatonal trade until 2010 when it arrived in Halifax October 7 and was registered in St.Catharines the next day.

Algoma Discovery arriving Halifax, October 7, 2010.

By the time it joined Algoma's Canadian fleet its four cargo cranes had been removed and the ship had become a "straight deck" bulk carrier in Great Lakes parlance (in other words, not a self-unloader). It also confined its activities to the St. Lawrence River and Gulf and the Great Lakes in the grain and iron ore trades.

The ship has been involved in numerous groundings, some allisions and at least two previous fires - one in Hamilton in 2012 and one in Sorel in 2016. Nevertheless it soldiers on.

The ship has been the subject of two Shipfax posts:  February 9, 2010  and  October 7, 2010 and resulted in some adverse (and unflattering) commentary from readers when I suggested the ship and its two sisters, also acquired by Algoma, were well past their prime. I also suggested that they were stop gap interim acquisitions until new ships were delivered, and had been acquired for little more than scrap value (they were then 23 years old a the time).

Having now thoroughly digested that crow, I am prepared to admit that Algoma got a bargain. Sister ship Algoma Guardian (ex Goviken, ex Omisalj) is also still running and Algoma Spirit (ex Sandviken, ex Petka) was sold for scrap in 2021. I now suggest that this is at least in part due to the reliable Sulzer main engnes, but also to the TLC administered to the ships (as predicted in Shipfax.) The fact that they were nearing 25 years in salt water trade was partially offset by them becoming seasonal and now largely fresh water ships and that has indeed added to their life spans.

The fire on Algoma Discovery was quelled by local firefighters and the on board fire suppression system. Identified by one press report as a carbon monoxide system (surely carbon dioxode!) it was used to smother the fire, displacing oxygen. The space must be vented out after the fire is extinguished before it is safe for people to enter the space again. Firefighters set up to draft water from the Welland Canal, but that was not needed. Pumping water into a ship is always a last resort!

.