[Saint John] Port Development

[cdnguys]

Originally Posted by Ottawa

The CPKC 120 eastbound through Maine on Aug. 6 was one of the larger trains CPKC has put on since reacquiring this route. It was a total of 215 cars. The makeup was 73 empty intermodal wells that are needed in the immediate timeframe, 45 general freight, and 169 containers in 97 intermodal wells.

As I mentioned previously, there appears to be an increase in the number of reefers and today there was a total of 48 reefers including 21 CMA/CGM reefers. All reefers are the larger 53 foot container size.

Do CPKC engines come all the way to Saint John, or handed off to NBSR in Maine?

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

Do CPKC engines come all the way to Saint John, or handed off to NBSR in Maine?

CPKC only goes east to Brownville Junction, Maine. CPKC owns the yard there and they hand off all the intermodal, autoracks, and in most cases the rest of the train to EMR/NBSR.

CPKC also owns the line south from Brownville Junction to Searsport.

Going the other way, EMR/NBSR drops off all their westbound shipments at Brownville Junction. CPKC delivers the NBSR to CSX freight (no intermodal or autoracks at this time) to CSX at Bangor. EMR/NBSR will deliver all their CSX bound freight (including additional intermodal at that point) directly to CSX at Mattawamkeag once they complete their upgrades. Stay tuned.

[J81]

Originally Posted by Ottawa

The CPKC 120 eastbound through Maine on Aug. 6 was one of the larger trains CPKC has put on since reacquiring this route. It was a total of 215 cars. The makeup was 73 empty intermodal wells that are needed in the immediate timeframe, 45 general freight, and 169 containers in 97 intermodal wells.

As I mentioned previously, there appears to be an increase in the number of reefers and today there was a total of 48 reefers including 21 CMA/CGM reefers. All reefers are the larger 53 foot container size.

If I understand you correctly you said that all 21 CMA CGM containers are 53 footers? If so, The largest containers in the CMA CGM inventory are 45’ which I believe is still the largest container in international container ship service. FYI. 53’ containers are exclusively domestic freight utilized by both CN and CP and all mega truck carriers like Armour, M-O, Midland and the likes

[FromMaine]

Both CN and CP are moving CMA containers now. You can look respectively at their port schedules here below. Based on this, it would appear that CN is moving Canadian traffic from Toronto and Montreal to SJ, whereas CP has the rest. I suspect this is due to some issues CMA was experiencing moving containers across the US border, likely they haven't been getting AES filings in on time or some other kind of issue... each steamship line handles this slightly differently.

As for reefers, 53' containers are domestic CPKC or privately owned. CMA-CGM will only have 40' reefers, and for dry boxes nothing to exceed a 45' but typically a 40' and or 20'. The 40' comes in a standard 8'6" height, but also a 'hi-cube' 9'6" height. 53' containers all come in the hi-cube height.

Important to note, a lot of containers moving to the port eastbound from the hinterland are empty due to trade imbalances on the transatlantic trade. It is heavy import into North America, so they have to cycle equipment back empty. You'll also notice that they'll run reefers empty or hauling dry goods as an NOR (non-operating reefer). You can tell this because they are lacking a genset on the end of power to keep the refrigeration going. Ones that doe have a genset are noticeable by appearance, but also if you are close to them you can hear the motor running. The fuel has to be periodically checked in rail yards for these units, or plugged into bigger power sources while idling in terminals.

Hope this helps.

CN Port Schedule: https://www.cn.ca/en/customer-centre...-service-grid/

CPKC Port Schedule: https://www.cpr.ca/en/customer-resources/port-schedules

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by J81

If I understand you correctly you said that all 21 CMA CGM containers are 53 footers? If so, The largest containers in the CMA CGM inventory are 45’ which I believe is still the largest container in international container ship service. FYI. 53’ containers are exclusively domestic freight utilized by both CN and CP and all mega truck carriers like Armour, M-O, Midland and the likes

I understand. They were either 40 or 45 feet-whatever CMA CGM has in their inventory.

[FromMaine]

Does anyone have enough pull or contact at the City to get them to rotate this camera upwards a bit? Would be great to see full view of the port activity instead of a dirt lot.

https://saintjohn.ca/en/community-da...y-quay-web-cam

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by FromMaine

Does anyone have enough pull or contact at the City to get them to rotate this camera upwards a bit? Would be great to see full view of the port activity instead of a dirt lot.

https://saintjohn.ca/en/community-da...y-quay-web-cam

I second that.

Here's another view from the north looking south. This one only refreshes a 2 min. clip every half hour.

https://e-navigation.canada.ca/topic...SaintJohnRange

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

I just saw some TEUs in CN’s Long Island yard. Perhaps I’m not very observant, but don’t remember seeing them before. Appeared to be CGA/CGM

Hears your answer. Westbound containers on the Sussex sub.

https://youtu.be/nAMzmcveGlk

[MonctonRad]

Port Saint John being served both by CP (to Maine) and CN to Moncton is truly a powerful advantage. Halifax is served by only one single lonely track which makes this route vulnerable to disruption (as we saw in the recent flooding event). Port Saint John should be driving this point home every time they meet with seaborne container lines to discuss business.

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Port Saint John being served both by CP (to Maine) and CN to Moncton is truly a powerful advantage. Halifax is served by only one single lonely track which makes this route vulnerable to disruption (as we saw in the recent flooding event). Port Saint John should be driving this point home every time they meet with seaborne container lines to discuss business.

There is also the direct access to eastern US markets from CSX once that rebuild is complete. CSX has prioritized that project and as of mid July was laying 136 lb (heavy duty mainline) continuous rail right up to the renewed NBSR interchange point. AFAIK, they have never moved any containers from NBSR to CSX over their CPKC connection. They have moved regular freight over that way. I would also expect the port's foreign trade zone status would add value for CSX especially.

On Aug. 10, Hapag Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen commented on the current status of containerized shipping worldwide stating "a lot of new vessels are coming, which partly will be absorbed by increased scrapping and slow-steaming, but certainly not all of that, and I think it is fair to say that supply growth will likely outpace demand growth in the remainder of this year, but also in 2024, which means we actively need to manage costs again, as we were used to in the past.”

All shipping companies are currently being forced to look at their fleets to produce higher efficiencies. Without doubt, the "increased scrapping" is going to come from older, smaller ships. They need bigger ships for the efficiency gains they need to meet market demand. Bigger ships need deeper water and the deep water at Saint John is a huge selling point as well.

[cdnguys]

Next month CMA CGM has a new ship coming in port - Cape Altius built in 2020. Wondering if this a new service

[CharlotteCountyLogan]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

Next month CMA CGM has a new ship coming in port - Cape Altius built in 2020. Wondering if this a new service

I do believe it is a new ship on the Hapag Lloyd route that goes from North Europe to the Caribbean.

[FromMaine]

The steamship lines are at a crossroads (again) where the order book for new ships exceeds the need for the current market capacity, while smaller ships are getting older... Hapag has already started scraping the older Ice class ships built for the St Lawrence back in the mid-90s, and I suspect that CMA will start scrapping ships or returning charters. SJ is fortunate enough to have prepared for larger ships, a wise move given the future outlook.

[cdnguys]

MSC Celine is on sched next month - don’t believe this ship visited SJ before.

[nwalbert]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

MSC Celine is on sched next month - don’t believe this ship visited SJ before.

Pretty incredible seeing this all happen right before our eyes. The rumors of logistical support needed in the city to support all of this continues to build, the spinoff is going to be impressive.

[cdnguys]

Originally Posted by nwalbert

Pretty incredible seeing this all happen right before our eyes. The rumors of logistical support needed in the city to support all of this continues to build, the spinoff is going to be impressive.

Can you elaborate on this? Something more than a potential cold storage facility? I’m impressed with sched - they have 23 days of September listed and we have 15 ships coming in.

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

MSC Celine is on sched next month - don’t believe this ship visited SJ before.

The MSC CELINE was here previously - on May 14 2021. It hasn't been by recently. 2021 was a different time in the biz.

https://photos.marinetraffic.com/ais...3125&size=full

But, at 2732 TEU, the MSC CELINE is about 10% larger than the rest of the MSC ships that have been stopping by most recently. At this point in time in the marketplace, I'll take a ~10% increase.

MSC NAISHA III - 2063 TEU
MSC MALENA - 2503 TEU
MSC MEDITERRANEAN - 2480 TEU
MSC CANBERRA - 2480 TEU
MSC YURIDA III - 2490 TEU
MSC DON GIOVANNI - 2604 TEU

All these ships are working the Canada Gulf Bridge service. MSC does rotate these ships in and out fairly regularly. With the MSC NAISHA III being the smallest in the currently calling list, they might drop that one off the list next.

[Ottawa]

I don't know if this is a first. There are 3 cranes working the NYK Nebula. They have moved one from the southern Rodney berth and working the stern with it. This configuration was the proposal for 800K capacity that I originally saw. They will want a similar size crane to the other 2 eventually, but this is close to what it might be for the northern berth.



Sorry for the poor quality pic. This is my non-local view.

[cdnguys]

Originally Posted by Ottawa

I don't know if this is a first. There are 3 cranes working the NYK Nebula. They have moved one from the southern Rodney berth and working the stern with it. This configuration was the proposal for 800K capacity that I originally saw. They will want a similar size crane to the other 2 eventually, but this is close to what it might be for the northern berth.



Sorry for the poor quality pic. This is my non-local view.

I’ve never seen this before. I’m also noticing containers seem to be really piling up again like end of 2022. Also, saw the new rail yard on port when in a drive to lower west and was very impressed! Very clean, organized looking and even impressed with light standards. It’s like the port grew up.

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

I’ve never seen this before. I’m also noticing containers seem to be really piling up again like end of 2022. Also, saw the new rail yard on port when in a drive to lower west and was very impressed! Very clean, organized looking and even impressed with light standards. It’s like the port grew up.

I assume you're referring to Bayshore Yard or are you talking about somewhere else? Take some pics for us next time you're in the area. Always appreciate that stuff.