HH Emilia - not a stranger

The container ship HH Emilia arrived this morning with engine trouble. Far off its normal route, it is coming to Halifax as a convenient place to unload all 2,000 or so containers for another ship to pick up. Repairs will apparently take some time, or such a measure would not normally be taken.

The ship is part of the Vespucci Service, a new service run by CMA CGM with partners Hamburg Sud and United Arab Shipping Corp. Starting in March of this year it is a North Asia, US East Coast service via Panama. The port rotation is Qindao - Ningbo - Shanghai -(Panama)- Cartagena - Savannah - Charleston - Norfolk - New York - Norfolk - Charleston  - Savannah - Qingdao.

CMA CGM, Hamburg-Sud and USAC are partners in the Vespucci service.

HH Emilia's last port was New York, so it is apparent that none of the subsequent ports offer suitable offloading facilities.

The ship was once a caller in Halifax. It was built in 1991 as Dresden Express by Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Engineering Co Ltd in Koje, South Korea. Measuring 53,833 grt, 67,713 dwt, it originally had a capacity of 4422 TEU, but that is now rated as 4639 (including 425 reefers).

Dresden Express on its first call in Halifax.

Its first call in Halifax was February 13, 2000. In March of this year it was sold by Hapag-Lloyd to Konig + Cie GmbH+Co KG of Hamburg. It was renamed with some haste to take up service on the Vespucci run, and reflagged to from Bermuda to Liberia. Even the old H-L funnel was retained, with the H-L obscured by some not very well matched paint.

My guess is that if the engine repairs are deemed serious enough the ship may go to scrap.In any event it is apparently going off charter to make way for another ship.

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From the Files - CCGS Ann Harvey

 1985

 Hull 72 at Halifax Shipyards was assembled on the ways.

Thirty years ago the Canadian Coast Guard Type 1100 navigation aids / light icebreaker CCGS Ann Harvey was  taking shape at Halifax Shipyard, and was launched December 12.

The ship's engines were installed after launching, and then the superstructiure was assembled.

It was not until July 17, 1987 that it was commissioned and stationed in Newfoundland.

With its hull still in primer paint, Ann Harvey conducts sea trials in the spring of 1987.

On April 1, 2015 it touched bottom near Burgeo and was holed. The vessel took on water in its propulsion motor room and received extensive damage.(It is powered by three 16 cylinder Alco / Bombarder / MLW main engines driving three 2100 kW generators powering two electric motors.) It was then towed to St.John's by CCGS Teleost for repairs at Newdock.

As a high endurance multi-task vessel its 8200 mile range allows it toserve the area between Cape Freels and St.Anthony and up to 200 miles offshore, however it can respond to SAR missions to the mid-Atlantic.

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CMA CGM Cendrillon

Finally a break in the weather - which has been stormy, rainy or just plain dark for the better part of the week and most ship movements have been taking place early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Today's first time caller was CMA CGM Cendrillon on the Columbus Loop service. As with all the ships in this rotation its name is associated with French musical theater. Cendrillon (Cinderella) is the subject of numerous tales in many languages and several operas, notably that by Jules Massenet.

CMA CGM Cendrillon was built in 2009 by Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Industry, Koje, South Korea. Its capacity is 8465 TEU including 700 reefers and it measures 90,931 grt, 109,021 dwt. Although owned by a French copmany flies the British flag.

Cendrillon or Cinderalla is a more fanciful name than most, but it has also been associated with Halifax before, since it was carried by a second generation Atlantic Container Line ship.

Atlantic Cinderella was built in 1970 by Ateleier et Chantier de Dunkerque et Bordeaux (France-Gironde) in Dunkirk, France. At 15,437 grt, 18,154 dwt, and with a capacity of 738 TEU it would be a pipsqueak by today's standards, but was a big and impressive ship at the time. Its massive Stal Laval propulsion system consisted of four steam turbines producing 35,000 shaft horsepower for 24 knots.

The ship's owner was Wallenius Rederierna of Sweden, one of the original ACL partners, which still names its ships after operatic characters.

After less than 15 years in service it was laid up in Jacksonville FL in December 1984, and was towed to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, arriving January 19, 1986 for breaking up.

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More cans, more cars

Like yesterday harbour activity was mostly containers and cars. This time I caught two inbound ships:
 

Green Dale arrived late morning and headed directly to Autoport. It is owned in the United States by International Shipholding Corp of Mobile, AB.It was built in 1990 by Kanasashi Shipbuilding of Toyohashi, Japan as Altair Leader, but took its current name later the same year. It first sailed for the Waterman Steamship Corp, a venerable US shipping line, but moved to Waterman's international operation in 2013 without change of name, but was reflagged to the Marshal Islands. Its tonnages are 50,087 grt, 16,894 dwt, and can carry 5,170 cars.

CMA CGM Almaviva arrived mid-day but had to wait for a tug, and for the smaller ship Reykjafoss to complete its work at pier 42. I suspect that there are equipment issues at Halterm, since many of the recent callers have been taking a longer time than usual to work their cargo, and they have not been using pier 36 for smaller ships.

The ship is another of the typical CMA CGM ships on the Columbus Loop service, and measures 96,817 grt, 109,000 dwt, with a capacity of 8465 TEU.  It was built in 2011 by Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Engineering, Koje, South Korea. It sails under French offshore registry, and carries an international crew.

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Chicago Express - good name;, and another Ace

Hapag-Lloyd picked a good name for the ship Chicago Express, at least as far as Halifax is concerned. Much of the import traffic over Halifax's container piers heads for the mid-west USA, thus giving that landlocked, but densely populated region, access to seaborne trade. The traffic goes by rail, and like roads leading to Rome, all rails seem to lead through Chicago.

Lobster season is in full swing - even well into Halifax harbour, using small boats, as Chicago Express finally sails this afternoon.

Chicago Express was a big deal when it was built in 2006 by Hyundai, Ulsan, as one of the eight ship Colombo Express class, which at the time were considered to be very big. Its 93,811 grt and 103,691 dwt and 8,749 TEU (including 730 reefers) made it too big for the Panama Canal, but it now ranks as mid-size after the proliferation of giants built by other lines, and by this time next year will likely be able to glide through the big(ger) ditch with ease.

What it will be carrying next year will be a different story, as today's mix of boxes include many APL cans. Since APL now belongs to CMA CGM, a competitor of H-L, it will be leaving the G6 Alliance.
CMA CGM will retain APL as a stand alone brand, as the former American President Line has a long transpacific history - and some Canadian history too.

Robert Dollar, born in Scotland, and raised in Canada, purchased a number ships in 1923, all named for US Presidents, and Dollar Line named all its subsequent ships in the same way. Dollar took over Pacific Mail Line in 1925. It was founded as a New York based clipper ship operator in 1848, and built some of the most famous extreme clippers such as Rainbow and Sea Witch.
The name American President Line as the formal name for the company did not occur until Dollar Line failed during the Great Depression and was taken over by the United States government in 1938. Follwiong World War II the company was privatized again and in 1997 was taken over by NOL.

If you want more detail here is a good account here:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_President_Lines 

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Aquamarine Ace made its departure from Halifax this afternoon after an overnight visit at Autoport. The 2008 built ship is a product of Mitsubishi Heavy in Kobe, measuring 60,143 grt, 18,772 dwt and has a capacity of 6400 cars.

Operators Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has a large fleet of Pure Car and Truck Carriers, and here's the list: MOL auto fleet
The ship and a number of its fleet mates are registered in the Cayman Islands, which now seems to be attracting autocarriers and other high grade ships to its flag.

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More than cars for Carmen

Wallenius Lines' car carrier Carmen made a visit to the Halifax side of the harbour this afternoon, after discharging a shipment of automobiles at Autoport. Sailing for Wallenius-Wilhelmsen Lines, the ship arrived at Autoport about 1700 hrs yesterday and moved across the harbour at noon time today.
 

A forklift scurries by as Carmen prepares to sail at 1600 hrs this afternoon.

Built in 2011 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering of Okpoo, South Korea, the 74,258 grt, 30,140 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,934 cars. However it is its ability to carry other oversize and heavy objects that brought it to pier 31. The ship has hoistable car decks in some areas within the hull to accommodate other cargo. It also has a stern ramp with 320 tonnes capacity to allow those objects to roll on or off the ship.

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Its official CMA CGM + NOL APL

CMA CGM's $2.43bn offer for NOL was tendered on Monday December 7 and promptly accepted by NOL's largest shareholder Temasek.

The offer, at 6% above the latest closing price comes after four years of losses and will see Temasek "selling" its $2.9bn debt to CMA CGM, which already has a debt of $5bn. Not surprisingly CMA CGM will begin a major asset sale, since it is borrowing the money to make the purchase.

Temasek, which controls 67% of NOL, paid twice per share, compared to what they are now getting, when they upped their ownership from 29% in 2004.

We may start to see APL boxes on the Columbus loop.

NOL's container line, APL is 13th largest in the world by capacity, and the combined lines (before asset sales) represents a ship capacity of 2.33 mn TEU and 11.5% of the world's capacity with 563 vessels.

It is an ill wind that blows no good, but will APL be gutted?

 

The combined entity would also represent 12% of transpacific trade capacity as against Maersk's 9%. Such a huge swath will certainly affect the smaller players and may also shuffle some of the current alliances. It will be interesting to see how CMA CGM handles swallowing such a huge pill.

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