(Above)Atlantic Sail inbound at the ferry track Saturday morning. (Below) Catharine Schulte for Melfi lines, and the tanker Jinan at anchor in the basin, waiting on weather. both ships sailed early afternoon.
Nor’easter (below) also sailed, after waiting 
on weather.
Weather was an issue on Saturday, with some ships moving, and others waiting it out. CMA-CGM Chennai, at just over 10000teu was forced to wait out her call until 15:00 on Sunday. She was worked over night, and sailed before noon on Monday.
With CMA-CGM Chennai not entering port Saturday morning, other container ships were moving.
Dimitra C, the former MOL Priority, arrived, and waited in the basin for Dalian Express to free the Western birth. With Dalian Express Clear, she backed in and tied up.
also working Fairview Cove on Saturday was Atlantic Sky in the the West birth.
the Alliance announced the AL 1 service will drop Bremerhavan, and begin calling in Hamburg starting with the January 6 trip of YM Express.
they also announced the addition of a ship to the route to smooth over winter delays. Announced today, the changes have not yet been reflected in the Public Schedule.
Container-news.com ran this article wondering if Mega – Container ships were dinosaurs needing to be replaced by smaller and more nimbler mammals.
The article matches what I said about the current state of the industry, but speculates that shippers will want more speed in their supply chains in the future due to mass customization, requiring more frequent, faster trips.
the Call by Dalian Express this weekend was beset by Delays. She finally sailed around 7:30 Last night.
On arrival she took to anchor in Bedford basin to wait for the departure of Alexandria to free up the western birth. she then moved into place, and was worked overnight, and then missed her sailing due to weather at the pilot station, spending the day alongside until she was able to sail last night.
Alexandra arrived this evening to Fairview cove. The ship is running on the Alliances EC5 Service. She arrived from Norfolk, and will sail from Halifax for Jebel Ali (Dubai, UAE) arriving on November 15th.
This is the normal Rotation for the EC5 Service.
This week, I talk about the birth of the container industry, and its constant struggle to remain profitable in a repeating cycle of larger ships cutting costs, leading to more larger ships, leading to excess capacity, leading to more large ships.
the container liners are a big departure from the tramp steamers they replaced, bringing speed and a schedule where there was none previously.
For a much more detailed history of the shipping container, I suggest reading Marc Levinson’s The Box.
Asian Sun spent today at pier 41 for Tropical Shipping. She is due to sail around 21:00 tonight.
Asian Moon has been tied up at pier 31, offloading nickle concentrate from Cuba. She is due to sail at 2300 tonight. (Both are file Photos)
the Nickle concentrate comes in bags, and are lifted out of the hold 12 at a time. once on the dock, forklifts take them into one of the transit sheds. they then get loaded into Gondola rail cars.
The Alliance has dropped Halifax from its AL6 service effective December.
Changes announced on the 26th, have a new routing of La Spezia –Genoa –Fos – Barcelona – Valencia – New York – Norfolk – Savannah – Miami – Algeciras –La Spezia.The New service will be combined with the Oceans Alliance Amerigo Service, and each alliance will provide 3 8000TEU vessels for a total of 6 in rotation.
Since the Service began in summer of 2017, the routing has been Salerno – Livorno – La Spezia – Genoa – Fos Sur Mer – Halifax – New York – Norfolk – Savannah – Salerno and is served by 5 smaller K-Line vessels (Brevick Bridge, Budapest Bridge, Berlin Bridge, Bilbao Bridge, and Brotonne Bridge) at Fairvew Cove.
ZIM markets the AL6 service as ZCI, and in a strengthening of the alliance, will be adding the Livorno stop to its ZCA Service which already calls in Halifax, and is now being Marketed by the Alliance as AL7. In the end, while this represents a loss of a weekly call to Halifax, the total TEU’s will likely remain the same.
APL Detroit arrived this morning, and took up Pier 42. Maersk Penang took P41. if you look closely, you will notice on of the cranes over APL Detroit has its boom up – Presumably out of service for some reason.
As a result, the last remaining pananmax crane, which usually services pier 36, has been swun around to work the Maersk Penang at 41. Penang being a Panamax ship, she fits comfortably under the crane.
