There was quite a parade of ships in Halifax today, February 25, and most of them had never been here before. In no particular order:
MSC England arrived for MSC's Gulf Canada service en route from Montreal via Corner Brook, heading for Mexico.
The ship was built in 2001 by Hyundai Ulsan as the CMA CGM Vega. The 39,812 gt, 51,020 dwt ship has a capacity of 4132 TEU, and took its present name in 2007. Ships on the Gulf Canada service do not normally call in Halifax, but this ship did call here late last year during the Montreal port workers strike, and left containers here to be forwarded by rail or truck.
There is no apparent reason for today's call unless it had something to do with the grounding of the MSC Baltic III February 15 near Corner Brook. That ship is in perilous condition. Salvage operations have not been possible due to weather and sea conditions.
At PSA Fairview Cove the Vela was due to depart early this evening for New York. The ship arrived yesterday on ZIM's ZCA Transatlantic service from the Mediterranean.
Built by Zhejiang Shipbuilding Co Ltd in 2009 it was delivered as JPO Vela but renamed Bunga Raya Sambilan in the same year. It reverted to JPO Vela in 2010 and became the Vela in 2019. A 41,225 gt, 50,420 dwt ship, it has a capacity of 4254 TEU. Oddly it does not appear to be carrying many reefers - usually a major part of cargo at this time of the year.
There was considerable activity in the Pier 9B and Pier 9C areas known as Richmond Terminals. The Canadian flag tanker Algotitan made an overnight stopover at Pier 9B and sailed late morning for Montreal, apparently in ballast.
The twin screw ship made a neat turn, right off the berth in the Narrows, and headed directly for sea. (Not so neat is its appearance due to St.Lawrence Seaway "lock rash".)
Inbound from sea for Pier 9C the Industrial Charger has aircraft components loaded in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The ship has had several names since built in 2000 by Estaleiros Navais, Lda de Viano do Castelo in Spain. It was launched as Virgo J but renamed on delivery as Industrial Charger, but became Virgo J again in the same year. In 2009 it was renamed Ocean Charger, then in 2015 Zea Charger and in 2020 Charger. It finally ended up as Industrial Charger in 2022. The 7252 gt, 7428 (or 8024) dwt ship is a flexible tween deck type, with box shaped holds and a container capacity of 516 TEU with 80 reefer plugs. It also carries a pair of 200 tonne SWL cranes, which can operate in combinaiton for a 400 tonne lift. It also carries some large blue coloured spreaders on deck.
A second ship is due after dark, also from Belfast, the Onego Deusto is more familiair here with cargoes of rail from Poland. Interestingly it was here February 26, 2024 with just such a cargo.
PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub had MSC England at Pier 42 using a variety of cranes, including two of the large cranes after they had completed work on the ship at Pier 41. The smallest cranes remained unused and the third large crane (which is rarely raised) remained at Pier 41.
The ship at Pier 41 was a first time caller the APL Esplanade in from Colombo via the Cape of Good Hope on the Ocean Alliance PSW3 and AWE3 service from Asia.
A ten year old ship, it appears by the condition of its paint to have recently been drydocked for its ten year survey. It was completed in 2014 by Hyundai Samho and is rated at 152,350 gt, 154,103 dwt with a capacity of 13,900 TEU. It was built originally as APL Ascend but was renamed MOL Quintet on delivery and took its present name in 2017.
American President Lines LLC (APL) is the American subsidiary of CMA CGM and was acquired in 2016 when CMA CGM bought Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) of Singapore which in turn had purchased APL in 1997.
CMA CGM, thankfully, uses the initials of two predecessor companies, Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement (CMA) and Compagnie Générale Maritime (CGM). The Company, based in Marseille, France, is the third largest container shipping company after MSC (based in Switzerland) and Maersk (from Denmark.)
More shipping for the day arrived after dark and may be visible tomorrow.
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