The largest China COSCO Shipping vessel to ever come to North America visited the Port of Long Beach late last month.

 

COSCO Shipping’s 14,500-TEU Himalayas berthed at the Pacific Container Terminal on Nov. 22. PCT handled a total of 15,860 TEUs on the Himalayas before it departed on Nov. 27. The Port has been handling ships carrying 14,000 TEUs or greater since 2012.

 

"Moving high volumes of containers on and off ships like COSCO Shipping Himalayas is our specialty," said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero. "It’s a skill we’ve built our services around so we can do it better than any other Port in the nation. We’re honored that China COSCO Shipping chose us for this visit."

 

One of the Himalayas’ sister ships, COSCO Shipping Alps, is scheduled to call on Long Beach in February and March 2018.

 

PCT and the Port of Long Beach also had the honor of servicing the 18,000-TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship to come to North America, in February 2016.

 

The M/V New Explorer, a Liberian registered vessel, sailing from Egypt, was the first ship to arrive at the Port of Sept-Îles this year at 8 a.m. on January 5, 2018. The vessel arrived in ballast and will set sail again on January 6, 2018 with 77,000 tons of iron ore from IOC Rio Tinto destined for Ghent, Belgium.

 

During a short ceremony, Mr. Pierre D. Gagnon, President & CEO of the Port of Sept-Îles, presented Captain Ioannis Kantounias with the prestigious cane bearing the Port of Sept-Îles insignia.

 

This tradition, now in its 31st year, marks the arrival of the first ship of the year to call the Port. To be eligible, the vessel must come directly from a foreign Port and be bound for a destination outside the country without making any other calls at a Canadian Port.

 

The Lowlands Opal is the first ocean-going vessel from an overseas port to dock at the Port of Trois-Rivières in 2018. It reached the port on Thursday, January 4, at 1:10 p.m., following a 16-day non-stop Atlantic voyage. The vessel, with its twenty crew members of Indian and Filipino nationality, left the port of Sao Luis in Brazil on December 19, 2017 with a cargo of 42,500 metric tonnes of alumina for the Alcoa aluminum smelter in Deschambault.

 

Mr. Luc Arvisais, vice-chairman of the Trois-Rivières Port Authority (TRPA) Board of Directors, explained: "To receive the title, the vessel must arrive in Trois-Rivières from an overseas port without making a stopover and perform a loading or unloading operation at the port."

 

During the 52nd ceremony marking the arrival of the first vessel of the year at the Port of Trois-Rivières, the captain and chief engineer of the Lowlands Opal, Mr. Sanjay Pharasi and Pardeep Singh, were presented with a giclée reproduction of the painting À bon port, produced by Mauricie artist Ms. Caroline St-Pierre. Mr. Gaétan Boivin, President and CEO of the TRPA, pointed out that 2017 marks 25 years of partnership between G3 Canada Ltd., which operates the terminal, the TRPA and Alcoa, for supplying the Deschambault plant. As Mr. Boivin explained, "Today's ceremony is a great opportunity to highlight that the Lowlands Opal has completed its 22nd crossing with alumina. This is also the second time the vessel has achieved the feat of being the first vessel at the Port of Trois-Rivières, when in 2009 it arrived on January 7."