MSC starts Indus 2

 The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has now included Halifax as a stop on its Indus 2 service, linking ports in India with east coast North America. Today (October 5) marked the first arrival, MSC Stella. The ship sailed from Mundra September 7, subsequently calling in Nava Sheeva, Gioia Tauro (Italy) and Sines (Portugal). After its stop here it is scheduled for Norfolk, Baltimore, Miami and Freeport (Bahamas) before sailing back to Mundra (via Suez).

MSC Stella dates from 2004 when it was delivered by Hyundai, Samho. Measuring 73,8219 gt, 85,680 dwt, it has a capacity of 6724 TEU including 400 reefers.

It was not the only ship at PSA Halifax today, as the ZIM Vancouver was working at Pier 42.

Built in 2007 by Dalian New Shipbuilding Industry Company, it is 39,906 gt, 50,532 dwt ship with a capacity variously reported as 4250 or 4225 TEU. It carried the name Pearl River I from 2007 to 2012. It has been calling Halifax for several years on the ZIM ZCA service (ZIM Container Service Atlantic), which operates also for HAPAG-Lloyd as its Atlantic Loop AL7 service, which is a Mediterranean / North America east coast route, with weekly calls at a dozen or so ports.

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Green Bulk Carrier

 Aegean Eco Carriers SA operates tankers and bulk carriers. Among the latter are six sister ships with sequential numbers as part of their names. Today, October 4, the Green K-Max 5 sailed from Halifax after an over night visit. 

Externally, there are few signs that the ship is any different from most Kamsarmax bulk carriers. So called because they are the maximum size that the major bauxite port of Kamsar, Guinea can accommodate. 

However on closer view, there is one obvious difference, and that is the absence of  a prominent bulbous bow. Ships designed for relatively high speed can improve performance by having a bulbous bow, but bulk carriers generally do not benefit much from the expense of construction. Instead this ship has other measures to improve efficiency through the water. these  include a  Samsung Asymmetric Rudder Bulb (SARB) and SAVER fins, which reduce drag. The ship also features an electronically controlled Hyundai MAN Tier II main engine that delivers high fuel economy while also reducing pollutants. It has numerous other "green" features in keeping with the company's environmental protection policies.

Built in 2020 by COSCO (Zhousam) Shipyard, it is a 44,051 gt, 80,873 dwt ship. It arrived in Halifax October 3 after delivering a cargo of bauxite from Trombetas, Brazil to La Baie, QC.  It was detained there for two days by Transport Canada, Port State Control for unspecified deficiencies. It is now heading for Norfolk, VA, most likely to load coal.

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New and Repeats

 Another "extra loader" container ship arrived today at PSA Halifax. These non-scheduled ships are not assigned to any particular route, but can move loads when the regular ships are held up in other ports or where empties and other boxes are accumulating in ports with little export cargo. MSC Noa was built by Hyundai, Ulsan in 2009 as APL Texas, and was renamed Texas in 2014 - presumably after a five year charter. It became MSC Noa in 2018.

It is a 75,582 gt, 85,713 dwt ship with a container capacity of 6500 TEU. I like the tanker style bridge wings. The ship is arriving from Le Havre, France, not a usual port for MSC ships coming to Halifax. It doesn't look like it has much extra capacity.

At Autoport it was Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Thalatta, one of the HERO class of High Efficiency RoRos, with a capacity of 8,000 CEU (Car Equivalent Units).

 I covered this ship when it arrived in Halifax for the first time May 10, 2016  At that time the ship was wearing its original Wilhelmsen colours , but has since adopted the new combination scheme shared by both companies.

The weather was superb this weekend and boaters were out in droves, as next weekend, (Canadian) Thanksgiving, is the traditional end of the season when many seasonal boat insurance policies expire. There were sails all the way to the horizon it seemed as the tanker Quartz [see previous post] sailed from Imperial Oil. Also the Tropical Shipping vessel Tropic Hope arrived at an outer anchorage, and will wait until tomorrow to tie up at PSA Halifax. 

It is an unusual trip for a tanker in ballast to sail from Halifax to Quebec City. The ship does not show on the Port of Quebec schedule yet, so it is not possible to say where it will dock or what it will load.

It was also unusual that the ship moved from Imperial Oil to Pier 27 yesterday (October 2). This may have been to take bunkers, but I could not see if there were tank trucks on the pier to deliver the fuel.

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Departures

 Shorter days in our latitude (roughly halfway between equator and north pole) mean that most ships arrive in darkness and now the light is fading for many departures. There was barely enough light for photographing two ships as they sailed this evening.

First off the berth was MOL Experience sailing from Cerescorp, Fairview Cove.  

It was last here September 7 on the westbound loop of THE Alliance's AL5 service. It is now bound for Port Everglades, FL before stops in Panama and Colombia then the Panama Canal. Due to congestion on the west coast it may be skipping Los Angeles and Oakland, instead heading directly to Seattle, then Vancouver. On its return eastbound leg it may also skip Oakland and LA and may skip Halifax too on its way back to Southampton.

Sailing from Pier 9C, SLNC Severn first headed into Bedford Basin to turn outbound.

The ship arrived September 30 for fuel and for other unspecified business. The ship is now bound for Auld's Cove on the Strait of Canso to load aggregates for the United States. It is a rare US flag (non-Jones Act) ship.

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Business, more or less as usual

 September 30 was observed as a Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. However it was not declared as a statutory holiday, so some businesses remained open. Others closed out of respect for Canada's indigenous population and in particular the victims of the residential schools program.

Even the port of Halifax did not have a consistent approach. PSA Halifax reduced its truck gate hours to a half day - 0800 to 1200 but Cerescorp kept its truck gate closed for the day. Both terminals had ships alongside however, and they were worked as usual.

At PSA Halifax it was a first time caller, CMA CGM J. Madison. It was built in 2018 by Hyundai, Ulsan and is a 140,872 gt,, 147,966 dwt ship with a capacity of 14,414 TEU. It certainly appeared well loaded with containers stacked seven to eight high on deck.

There are reports that PSA Halifax has confirmed its order for another super post-panamax crane, which it certainly could use if it is to handle two ships of this size at the same time.

Cerescorp was also handling a very large ship for its facility. ONE Hangzhou Bridge is a 96,760 gt, 96,980 dwt ship with a capacity of 9120 TEU. It was built for K-Line by IHI Kure in 2012 as Hangzhou Bay Bridge and renamed in January 2021 and given its new hull colour. The ship made its first call here on THE Alliance's EC5 service June 28, 2021 and is scheduled again for October 20.

Fairview Cove could also use a new crane to replace the old crane at the far end of the pier. It seems to be out of service. ONE Hangzhou Bridge shares the pier with the Nolhan Ava which makes its usual weekly sailing to Argentia and St-Pierre on Fridays.

Imperial Oil also had an arrival today. Quartz brought in a cargo of refined product from Beaumont, TX.

The ship is operated by Sinokor Petrochemical Co and was built by SPP Shipbuilding Co, Incheon, South Korea in 2015. The ship is a 29,767 gt, 49,990 MidRange type.

At Pier 9C it was a return call for the United States flag bulk carrier SLNC Severn. It was here for the first time June 26, 2021 for a compliance inspection by Transport Canada.

    

This time the ship appeared to be taking bunker fuel (under the watchful eye of the Canada Border Services Agency). The ship's operators Schuyler Lines Navigation Company (SLNC) have been carrying aggregates from Auld's Cove, Strait of Canso, where there are no bunkering facilities. The ship has also been reported in the South Atlantic (Saint Helena), and Cape Verde and the Canary Islands recently. 

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Morning, Night and Noon

 The PCTC (Pure Car and Truck Carrier) Morning Claire arrived yesterday morning at Autoport and after discharging automobiles it moved over to Pier 31 to offload non-automobile RoRo cargo. Unusually for a car carrier it spent the night in port and sailed at noon time today.

The ship was built by Shin Kurushima in Toyohashi, Japan in 2012. At 60,928 gt and 16,491 dwt it has a capacity of 6502 CEU.  The ship delivers cars built in "The land of morning calm" (Korea) and is part of an 80+ ship EUKOR fleet. Not only does South Korea compete with Japan in car construction, EUKOR competes with the big Japanese car carrier companies such as K-Line and NYK and MOL. It is therefore more than ironic that the ship was built in Japan.

Hyundai and Kia own only 20% of EUKOR, and ship all their products exclusively by Eukor. Wallenius and Wilhelmsen each own 40% of EUKOR, through various subsidiaries. 

As a side note, the ship used the western channel outbound, and it was all I could do to keep it within the confines of my lens when it passed Ferguson's Cove.

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Cape Corfu - new in town

Today (September 27) saw the first of several unscheduled container ships to call over the next weeks. These ships have been brought in to deal with delays in  other ports (meaning ships cannot meet schedules), accumulations of empty containers, and a high demand for westbound transatlantic freight from northern Europe.

Cape Corfu is an almost brand new ship, that just entered service at the end of June when it was delivered by Guangzhou Wenchong. Cape Shipping SA (based in Greece) had a moderate sized fleet of bulkers, but for some reason decided, as far back as 2015, decided to order some container ships. That seems to have paid off incredibly well as current demand for ships is extraordinary, and westbound transatlantic freight rates have nearly doubled in the past year.

The 31,22 gt, 37,025 dwt ship has a capacity of 2756 TEU, which would have been considered uneconomical, except as a feeder ships, until this year.

The ship displays lots of strange hieroglyphics on the hull - most of which may be worn off by contact with tugs. For the time being however they mark hull station lines, bulkhead locations and stacking instruction symbols for container loading. Others marks - including the staggered "o" and "oo"s are a mystery. (They may apply to various positions of the pilot ladder.)

Another notable feature is the cell guide / lashing frames on deck. This is a relatively new feature on the main deck of container ships, and may be a welcome response to many incidents involving boxes lost at sea, particularly in the Pacific. It also apparently allows for an increase in the height of boxes stacked on deck. Few ships of this size would carry six high boxes - even amidships. Due to the fine lines of the ship fore and aft I would therefore be concerned about parametric rolling, and extra lashings would be good idea! [see footnote]

From the look of the containers, the ship is working for THE Alliance, and more than likely for partner HAPAG-Lloyd, but is not necessarily following one of the regular routes. It is sailing from Rotterdam, but its next port has not been posted yet.

The ship does not have stowage or holds aft of the superstructure. The poop deck is given over to the free fall lifeboat and a huge Masada brand provisions / stores crane (Jiangsu Masada Ship Machinery Co Ltd, licensed to use Mitsubishi crane technology).  

It appears that the ship is equipped with an exhaust gas scrubber system and only a very small shroud around the exhaust stacks - too small to be called a funnel. Instead the ship displays a blue over white over blue painted panel on the side of the house for the company colours.

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I have been accused of being too technical, but for those who are interested, here is a good explanation of parametric rolling: https://www.wartsila.com/encyclopedia/term/parametric-rolling

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