Commencing on Saturday and continuing until later this week, an interesting run of bulk/lumber carriers will have visited both the fertiliser and Beach St berths. Several of these vessels have been here before under different names.
Starting the ball rolling was the 14,762gt, Liberian-flag Voge Renate, which has been owned since April 2007 by H. Vogemann, of Hamburg. It sailed from Ravensbourne yesterday, and returns to Port Chalmers later in the week for logs.
Earlier in its career it loaded logs there in June and August 2000. The ship, then sailing as the Manila-registered Joint Bright, was the first Philippines-built vessel to call here. Completed in July 1997, it was built at Balambang by Tsuneishi (Cebu) Heavy Industries.
Second-time visitor Great Summit arrived at the Ravensbourne fertiliser berth yesterday. This 19,829gt Oshima-built vessel entered service in February 2005, and in July 2007 discharged Chinese cement at Port Chalmers and also Dunedin. It was built for operation within the Cido group, of Hong Hong, and Busan by White Hemlock Shipping S.A.
Like the above-mentioned vessel, newcomer Santiago Basin, bringing in more supplies for Ravensdown this week, is also registered at Hong Kong. This 20,987gt vessel has been in service since October 28, 2008, with Future Sea Ltd. It is the fourth of the Silver Lake class vessels ordered from the Jiangmen yard at Quangdong by Pacific Basin Shipping.
Ocean Pearl, currently loading logs at Beach St, and Hibernia, also due there for logs later in the week, may be new names to the port. However, both have been here previously under other names.
The 17,430gt Ocean Pearl has been sailing under the Cypriot flag for Oceanstatus Shipping Ltd, Athens, since 2005. Built by the Kanda shipyard the vessel commenced its career in January, 1994, sailing under the Liberian flag as Super Queen.
In 2002, it was bought by Union Commercial Inc of Piraeus and renamed Stam on the Marshall Islands register. Two years later they changed the name to Helen. As Stam, the vessel discharged cement at Port Chalmers and Dunedin in June 2004. Then, as Helen, it returned in February 2005 to discharge phosphate and then load logs at Port Chalmers.
Hibernia is a 17.784gt Chinese-built vessel that was delivered in April 2001 by the Bohai yard at Huludao as Cranford Navigation's Selinda. A month later it visited Ravensbourne and on a return visit in July, 2005, berthed at Dunedin to discharge cement.
Renamed Sag Bulk Australia in December 2009, it has been carrying its present name for only the past three months. It has flown the Liberian flag since new.
On its first visit this week, the Hong Kong-registered Marianne Schulte will be the fourth vessel to call in the new Tanjung Pelepas hub link. Launched under that name the vessel was completed on July 17, 2001, as P&O Nedlloyd Acapulco, but reverted to its launching name six years ago.
It was built at Ulsan by Hyundai Heavy Industries. Designed to operate at 21.9 knots, the 26,718gt vessel has a capacity of 2556teu.
