Yearly Archives: 2016

The Alliance Announces New Network

The Alliance – Hapag-Lloyd, K Line, MOL, NYK and Yang Ming Announced their new routing today. Halifax Features on Three Services, which look to generate 4 weekly calls. Recall that NYK, MOL and K Line agreed to merge their container services 2 weeks ago.

The New EC 5 service is roughly equivalent to the AZX service of the G6 Alliance. It makes bi-directional stops in halifax on both east and westbound legs. Laem Chabang – Cai Mep – South East Asia Hub – Colombo – (Suez Canal) – Halifax – New York – South Atlantic (US) – Norfolk – Halifax – (Suez Canal) – Arabian Gulf Hub – South East Asia Hub – Laem Chabang

AL 1 looks to mirror the transatlantic portion of the current G6 PA1 service. the routing is as follows:
Bremerhaven – Antwerp – UK – Norfolk – Philadelphia – New York – Halifax – Bremerhaven

The AL 6 is a new service calling on Halifax for this Alliance. It roughly mirrors the current ZIM and Melfi Services that call on Halifax, though those both service the Caribbean, which this does not. The routing is Livorno – La Spezia – Genoa – Fos – Barcelona – Valencia – West Med Hub – Halifax – New York – Norfolk – South Atlantic (US) – West Med Hub – Valencia – Livorno

Newest US Warship – USS Detroit Due today.

The latest US Navy Littoral Combat Ship is due for a port visit this afternoon. Expect her in the Harbour around 1:30.

this Variant of the LCS is built at the  Marinette Shipyard in  Wisconsin, and USS Detroit was commissioned in her Namesake city Oct 22. the Previous 3 freedom class ships have visited Halifax on there way to their home port, including LCS1 USS Freedom, LCS3 USS Fort Worth, and LCS5 USS Milwaukee. (The freedom class uses Odd numbers, the Independence class uses even)

 

photos to follow.

Halifax in New Oceans Aliance

The Oceans Alliance announced its routes today, and it Preserves CMA-CGM’s Halifax Call. the New Oceans Alliance is made up of CMA CGM, China Cosco Shipping, Evergreen Line, and OOCL.

The Halifax service is One of  Seven Asia-East Coast North America Services, and will be known as the AWE3 service and will be routed Hong Kong-Cai Mep-Singapore-Port Kelang-Colombo-Halifax-New York-Norfolk-Savannah- Port Kelang–Port Kelang-Singapore-Jakarta-Laem Chabang-Cai Mep-LGB/LAX-Oakland- Hong Kong.

This routing approximates the current Columbus loop service.

Thorco Liva Loading Cable Tanks

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The General Cargo ship Thorco Liva tied up at pier 9 to load cable Tanks. the tanks are frameworks used to transport Subsea cables.  The cable will Likely be picked up in the US. International Telecom is Headquartered at pier 9, and operates two cable layers registered in the Bahamas. they are likely the source of the cable tanks, and the end users of the cable.

Thorco Liva was built in Japan in 2012.

 

 

Container Terminal Moving to Dartmouth? probably not.

I was recently quoted in a CBC Article by Paul Withers. I thought it would be a good idea to flesh out some of the thoughts in that article.

The Port authority has announced that it is undertaking a study looking at relocating one of the container terminals. They haven’t said which one. they also made comments suggesting they want to alleviate downtown trucks. This leads everyone to think the Southend terminal is moving to Dartmouth.

I think this is an unlikely scenario. The South End Terminal consists of the Halifax Ocean Terminals (Piers 20-35) And Halterm (Piers 36-42) Besides numerous transit sheds, the south end facility is also home to the grain elevator. It already has deep water, and is unencumbered by bridges. It seems unlikely that the port authority would relocate Halterm, leaving the rest of the facility there. recall that the main goal is to accommodate bigger ships concurrently. Even as a pure real estate play – the coming of availability of land from the cogswell interchange would make it seem that prospects for development would be offset for a number of years.

More likely is that Fairview Cove closes. Its big constraint for this terminal is the bridges – already the largest ships calling on halifax cant pass underneath at high tide – or on westbound legs when they are carrying mostly empties. The Macdonald is being Raised as part of the big lift, however the Mackay will remain at the same height until it needs redecking. There are also stories that Ceres wants to terminate the lease early – which suggests they see the writing on the wall.

A move to Dartmouth is problematic. Any new facility would need to be constructed from scratch on Infill. There is not currently sufficient rail capacity to accommodate trains there, and the logical place to build such a terminal is where the imperial oil docks currently are – and they are unlikely to go anywhere. Anywhere else would likely run afoul of the neighbors.

I suspect the best option will be another extension of Pier 42, or extending pier B further into the Harbour. As for the truck issue, I would suggest that the city build the planned, but never built Northwest Arm bridge, and highway connection to the 103 as a transit and Truck route only. this would solve the problem of getting buses from Spryfield, Tantalon and Timberlea onto the peninsula bypassing traffic choke points, and remove trucks from downtown. Trucks could exit into the railcut to access the port from Robie street, and could be subject to a toll to fund the road. Busses could connect to Robie.

 

 

NYK, MOL and K Line to merge container businesses

The three large Japanese shipping companies have announced they will merge their container lines into a new firm, which will be the 7th largest. NYK currently calls on Halifax as part of the G6 alliance. MOL and K-Line stopped calling in 2011 when their shared service ended service to Halifax.

With the recent bankruptcy of Hanjin, and CMA-CGM’s acquisition of NOL, and the termination and creation of alliances  there will be lots of change coming in the next year.

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