Baltic Leopard - non- endangered species - updated

Despite the somewhat exotic name, the bulk carrier Baltic Leopard is one of a large class of ships generally referred to as Handysize. These are bulk carriers between 40,000 and 60,000 dwt. The class is subdivided in Handymax, less than 50,000 dwt and Supramax, between 50,000 and 60,000 dwt. Generally around 200m in length and fitted with four 30 tonne cranes, they can be used for a variety of bulk cargoes, and are thus considered to be "handy" or versatile.

Baltic Leopard arrived this morning and anchored in the upper reaches of the harbour and appeared to be undergoing hold cleaning / inspection. This would normally take place before loading a sensitive or food grade cargo such as grain.

It was built in 2009 by Yangzhou Dayang in Yangzhou, China as Borak for Turkish owners, flying the Malta flag. In 2010 it was placed under the management of Genco Shipping and Trading Ltd flying the Marshal Islands flag. Among about 60 or so other bulkers in the fleet, some are prefixed with "Genco" and others with "Baltic". Some of the latter are named for animals of all sorts including mammals and insects, resulting in some as yet undiscovered species, such as the Baltic leopard.

The former Baltic Trading Company merged into Genco in 2015, and the ship carries the letter "B" on its funnel. Genco is a publicly traded company based in New York.

At 31,117 grt, 53,447 dwt it qualifies as a Supramax and has four cranes with grabs and five holds. It arrived from Wilmington, DE , but its next port has not been published. I suspect it carried salt on that last voyage, hence the need for hold cleaning before loading and inspection before loading again.
The ship is scheduled to move to pier 27 tomorrow to load.

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Finale 2

Finale 2
It has been revealed by Halifax Shipping News that Algoma Tankers and Sterling Fuels, part of the McAsphalt / Miller Group, have not renewed their contract for the tanker Algoma Dartmouth. The deal, signed in January 2014, saw Sterling take over harbour fueling from Imperial Oil using the Algoma tanker.

Algoma Dartmouth coming alongside Hamburg for refueling at pier 23.

Sterling has a bunkering tanker operation in Hamilton, ON and fuel depots in Windsor and Sarnia, ON. It also provides fuel by truck in those regions and in Halifax and that seems likely to continue. However not all ships that refuel here would be willing to pay for berthage and tugs in order to take fuel from trucks. Many of the ships are too large or too deeply laden to berth at Halifax piers. By my estimation about 30 ships took bunkers at anchor since January 1, 2018.

It is particularly awkward for cruise ships, where not all berths are set up for truck access. Fueling by tanker from the water side, also eliminates any cross traffic with passengers.

It is understood that Algoma Dartmouth will be moving to Saint John, NB, where it will work for Irving Oil. It will then be able to refuel many of the passenger ships that would have taken fuel in Halifax. It would also provide fuel for ships that had to come from Saint John to Halifax just to take fuel.

Other companies, including Irving Oil, provide bunker fuel in Halifax, and thus compete with Sterling. Irving Oil uses trucks and its Woodside marine terminal to deliver bunkering fuel, but likely only diesel fuel, not heavy fuel.

Wilson's Fuels has a pipeline to pier 9 from its storage tanks on Barrington Street and has been refueling the support ships that BP has been chartering for its oil exploration work. The pipeline is also used to bring in fuel, most recently from Come-by-Chance, NL, which would not include heavy fuel oil, but refined product.

Occasionally trucks from Quebec show up to fuel ships, likely from the Valero refinery in Lévis. However since the trucks are not marked for Valero, there is no way to be certain where the fuel comes from. Similarly the local tank truck operators Seaboard also deliver ship fuel, again anonymously.

Algoma Dartmouth has hardly been busy since it arrived here, sometimes sitting idle for many days  at a time. Recently I have noted the coaster Nolhan Ava - berthed at pier 36 - less than 100 feet away from Algoma Dartmouth is now taking fuel from a McAsphalt tanker truck. Other users include the Canadian Coast Guard and some naval ships. Other Canadian navy ships appear to be refueling at Irving Oil Woodside these days, so cruise ships have been the main customers this fall. With that season now ended, there will be a major drop off in business.

As a "full service port" Halifax has benefited from the waterside delivery of fuel, without the service it seems like another, albeit small, factor in making Halifax less attractive to shipping.

No announcement has been made by Imperial Oil or Sterling on whether they plan to acquire another tanker. My thinking is that if they had such plans something would have been said by now. However, their web site, at least as of today, continues to show Algoma Dartmouth and advertise fueling by tanker and by truck.

Since the takeover by Sterling the Algoma Dartmouth has been sourcing fuel from several locations. At first it was making trips to Point Tupper, NS to load fuel there and even made a trip to New York /New Jersey in early 2014.

Recently however Sterling gets its MDO (Marine Diesel Oil) from Imperial Oil at its terminal in Dartmouth. Imperial imports most if its refined product from Europe. Heavy fuel comes from Sterling's parent company McAsphalt, and is loaded at their dock in Eastern Passage. That material is mostly produced by Irving Oil at their Saint John refinery.

Since January 1, 2018 Algoma Dartmouth has refueled about 112 ships. Of those 44 have been cruise ships. The slowest month this year was February with only four calls for bunkers. September saw 24 and October had 26 refuelings. Of these 18 were cruise ships for each month. The average is one refueling every three days from January 1 until the end of October 31.

All of the cruise ships, 44 refuelings in all, with several ships refueling more than once, took bunkers while alongside.

My unofficial analysis indicates that the next largest source of work, after cruise ships, is from:
- ships sailing to or from Quebec ports such as Sept Iles, La Baie (Port Alfred) and the St.Lawrence River ports (about 19 ships), all taking bunkers while at anchor.
- tankers form a large part of the business with more than 25 vessels served, a few of which have already called in Saint John or are destined for Saint John. Others are St.Lawrence related and are included in the number above. Again all these were while the ships were anchored.
- container ships account for a small part of the work, with only four serviced, and these were relatively small spot charter ships.  Oceanex Sanderling has been served, but may also be refueling from trucks.
- miscellaneous ships in the breakdown include three CSL bulkers, and two cable ships.
It should be noted that these numbers are only approximate and are based on my own personal observations and records which are not exhaustive.

Larger shipping companies, particularly the container lines, working fixed routes, have long term fuel contracts with suppliers and usually take on fuel on pre-arranged schedules. Ships that are more or less tramping (no fixed routes) or are spot chartered, are more likely to need fuel before or after transatlantic trips. Halifax is well positioned for that business, but apparently there is not enough of it to justify the expense of a full time bunkering tanker. I reckon only about a dozen of the calls since January would fall into that category (aside from cruise ships).

It will also be interesting to see how operations in Saint John work out, since many of the ships calling there are anchored in an open roadstead, and conditions may make it difficult to service them.

Although Saint John has about half or less the number of cruise ships calls that Halifax does, they are almost all the same ships. So many of those that customarily bunker in Halifax could presumably do so in Saint John. Those that only call in Halifax could probably make do with truck delivery, depending on their berth.

It would seem that the basis for this move is that Algoma Tankers needed to find more work for its vessel, since it was sitting idle too much. Irving Oil perhaps felt that selling its heavy fuel directly to a user would be better business. However with new regulations regarding fuels, Marine Diesel Oil must be used by more and more ships. That could be another reason for the move, since Imperial must import all that fuel from abroad, whereas Irving has the capability to produce it locally (at least until the recent fire.)

 With fenders permanently deployed on the ship's starboard side, it returns from a bunkering assignment.

When Algoma Dartmouth (perhaps to be renamed?) sails, I will provide a potted history of bunkering in Halifax. It is currently at pier 9B undergoing some modifications for its new job. Due to its age (built in 2007) it must also be due for a drydocking. The last one was in January 2012 so perhaps this will be done at Shelburne en route to Saint John.

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Twin Citieis Part 1

The cities of Sioux City, Iowa and Wichita, Kansas may not have much in common, and as far as I know are not twinned, except in the names of two new ships for the United States Navy.

Both ships, USS Sioux City LCS-11 and Wichita LCS-13 have been completed by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin and are on their delivery trips. Both are scheduled to visit Halifax en route, and the first arrived today.

Today's fog and rain added to the ship's stealth characteristics.

USS Sioux City was laid down February 19, 2014, launched January 30, 2016 and delivered to the USN on August 22. After acceptance trials, it sailed from Marinette October 23. After a stop in stop in Detroit it made its way through the Welland Canal, escorted by the Hamilton, ON based tug Océan A. Gauthier and the St.Lawrence Seaway with the assistance of the tug Océan Henry Bain. After a stopover in Montreal it sailed November 3.  It is another in the Freedom class of Littoral Combat Ships built at Marinette, all of which have stopped in Halifax on their delivery trips.

Next week the next in the series USS Wichita is due in Halifax*. It was laid down February 2, 2015, and launched September 17, 2016.  After acceptance trials it was also handed over to the USN on the same day as Sioux City, August 22, 2018. It sailed from Marinette November 1 and following the same route, with the same escorts, arrived in Montreal yesterday, November 5.

Both ships have thus avoided last year's fiasco when LCS-9, USS Little Rock was beset by early forming ice in the St.Lawrence Seaway and had to spend the winter in  Montreal. Instead of arriving in Halifax over Christmas, it did not arrive until April 3.


The latest arrivals are not the last we will see.  A total of fifteen ships of the class have been built or are on order, with Marinette Marine, with eight still to come our way.


Update: As you will see from the comment below, someone is reporting that the USS Wichita visit will not take place.

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Finale

Finale
With the arrival today of two ships, the Halifax cruise season for 2018 has come to an end. Insignia tied up at pier 22 and Silver Wind at pier 23 on another day of high winds and driving rain. The last few weeks have been plagued by wild weather, and one wonders if lines will continue to come so late in the season where weather can be an issue. It is not just the missed or delayed port arrivals, but conditions at sea between ports must be less than idyllic too.

An uninviting looking pier 22 and pier 23 greeted the last visitors of 2018.

Insignia had an abbreviated visit October 29 - which was late at night and only long enough to take on needed fuel - and dropped its Sydney call altogether to head on to Quebec City. Silver Wind was also late arriving October 16 due to weather and sea conditions. Once again, as it did then, it used two tugs to berth. Remarkably I counted only two outright cancellations due to weather this year.

The ship Victory II that was late entering service from its refit and had to change its itinerary. That resulted in the loss of several calls. It, along with Pearl Mist,  each cancelled a late season call, likely due to weather. There was the abbreviated call mentioned above and some unplanned overnight stays that likely resulted in cancellations at other ports.

Halifax has experienced a continued growth in the cruise business this year, and will likely do so again next year.  A second berth in Sydney, NS next year is expected to mean more and larger ships in that port. It will also mean that fewer ships will have to tender passengers ashore from anchorage, making a Sydney call more attractive. The ports of Saint John, Sydney and Charlottetown see many of the same ships as Halifax, and improvements in one port will benefit all.

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Value Added

The self-unloading bulk carrier Algoma Value arrived this morning and tied up at pier31. I noted some tank trucks waiting, so it is likely to be bunkering, but may also have some maintenance work to do.

CSL Value "puts on the brakes" as it reverses engines to slow down before turning into pier 31. Two tugs are on the ship's starboard side.

 
This is the ship's third name - at least for part of it. As re-counted here in  Shipfax March 7, 2016 
the ship was built as the tanker Polysunrise in 1981 then converted to a self-unloader with a new forebody in 2006 and renamed Baldock. When owners Klaveness decided to exit the CSL self-unloader pool, Algoma picked up the ship and hastily renamed it Algoma Value as of January 1, 2016. Now that the ship has been in Algoma service for a couple of years, they have had time to repaint it in Algoma colours.

 Still with remnants of its Klaveness colour scheme, Algoma Value bunkered at anchor in March 2016.

Its last port of call is listed as Montreal, but I can't confirm that (AIS is sometimes mistaken).

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Sunday containers

After a very stormy night, with high winds wreaking havoc with power lines ashore and regional ferry services, shipping seemed to return to normal this morning, even though it was still windy, with the arrival of three container ships. Regular callers Atlantic Star and Bilbao Bridge, one after the other for Fairview Cove had all four harbour tugs in Bedford Basin at one time.

However before that happened a first time caller tied up at Halterm. CMA CGM Amazon arrived on the Columbus JAX service. Although similar in size to the other 18 or so ships on the rotation, it is not owned by CMA CGM or their wholly owed APL. Its owner is listed as Dias Container Carrier SA c/o Capital Ship Management of Piraeus, Greece. With 60 plus ships of all types totaling over 7mn tonnes deadweight under its control, Capital is one of the larger Greek shipping companies. Most of its ships' names begin with the letter "A".

Built in 2015 by Daewoo Mangalia, the 96,424 grt, 115,145 dwt ship has a capacity of 9288 TEU including 1500 reefers. It has open bridge wings unlike the recent APL ships that have full width enclosed bridges.


When CAM CGM Amazon arrived at Halterm, it squeezed in astern of San Adriano, yesterday's sole arrival, but which could not work last night due to fierce winds.

San Adriano, sailing on the Maersk Montreal Mediterranean Express (MMX) service, completed loading and sailed late this afternoon (and in daylight, thanks to the switch back to Standard time.) It is one of five ships on the service, that seem to be changing out from the original callers that started calling here in August, so this is likely its last call.


Owned through the Claus-Peter Offen interests of Hamburg, the ship was launched in 2008 under its present name, but was renamed Ibn Qutaibah for a year before reverting back. It is a product of Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan and at 22,914 grt, 28,300 dwt, has a capacity of 1819 TEU including a large reefer component of 462. It is also equipped with three 45 tonne cranes.

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More Boister

Another boisterous day on Halifax harbour, and there was only one commercial arrival and no departures. Some ships that were due today have delayed arrival until tomorrow when things are expected to calm down.,

In the harbour traffic was limited to the usual ferry crossings between Halifax and Dartmouth, with Halifax Transit's newest vessel Rita Joe doing the honours. The boat was completed by A.F.Thériault in late September and arrived in Halifax ca. September 30. Although it entered service about October 22, it was not officially welcomed into the fleet until a ceremony on October 26.

Passengers enjoy a splashy trip from Dartmouth to Halifax. 

 

It is the last of the five boat replacement fleet built since 2014, and means that Woodside I, built in 1986, has been removed from service. Both Dartmouth III and Halifax III have been sold to Toronto Island Transit Services Inc, with the first named delivered to Toronto last year, and the second still sitting in Sambro, NS awaiting delivery. 

In the murky reaches of anchorage number 2, at the entrance to Eastern Passage, CCGS Sir William Alexander and CCGC Sambro, with a number of CCG RHIBs were conducting a Search and Rescue exercise, well beyond clear camera range from Halifax.

At HMC Dockyard HMCS Windsor was enjoying shore leave so to speak, on the synchrolift. The sub was away from Halifax all summer and is no doubt in need of some maintenance.

A white tent structure erected astern may be related to prop work.

Today's one arrival, San Adriano appears to have moved up a day, to allow for tomorrow's arrival at Halterm, CMA CGM Amazon, a 9288 TEU ship that would be unwieldy to berth in today's windy conditions.

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