Last month, Hanjin Bombay was listed to be the last log ship for the year. Delays in loading Sea Glory with logs at Dunedin meant the vessel anchored off the harbour entrance for a few days. When it did eventually berth at Leith wharf on January 2, the vessel claimed the distinction of being the first newcomer for 2011.
Hopefully, it will set the scene for an influx of first-time callers and possibly an increase on last year's tally. This included 40 vessels employed in the dry cargo sector, logs, woodchips, phosphate, scrap metal, and wind-turbine columns.
Also making initial appearances were 14 container ships, eight tankers, three cruise ships plus the renamed Pacific Dawn (ex Regal Princess).
This month is off to a flying start with Hanjin Bombay and Maersk Batur, Rainbow Star and Trans Friendship II all arriving at the weekend.
Maersk Batur is a 35,835gt, 3078teu vessel, one of a class of B-named ships built by Hanjin Heavy Industries (which also built Hanjin Bombay in 1995) from 2008-10. These 22-knot vessels are registered at Singapore to the ownership of AP Moller Singapore Pte Ltd.
Sister ship Maersk Bratan has been calling here since September. These vessels are now employed in the Maersk North American VSA service in conjunction with Hamburg-Sud's Trident service.
Rainbow Star is a 26,914gt, 47,333dwt Hong Kong-registered tanker, owned by the Neptune Navigation Co, and on charter to Japan's NYK group. The Onomichi Dockyard Company laid the vessel down on November 9, 2006, launched it on October 27, 2008, and handed it over on February 27, 2009. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, this yard built several of the earlier visitors employed in the export log trade.
Trans Friendship II was an interesting visitor that discharged phosphate at Dunedin. Due to the dense nature of this product, loaded mainly from river barges at Cailan, Vietnam, it cannot be handled by the equipment at the Ravensbourne berth, so had to be unloaded at Dunedin, then trucked down to the fertiliser works.
The 19,994gt, 32,000dwt, bulk/lumber type also happens to be on its maiden voyage. Ordered from the CSSC Guangzhou Huangpu Shipbuilding on December 7, 2006, it was laid down on December 23, 2008, and completed as recently as December 7, 2010.
Registered at Hong Kong, the ship is owned by Friendship Two Shipping Ltd, a member of the Sinotrans group of companies.
Last year's visitors included eight vessels that entered service during the year.
Two of these, Global Standard and King Sugar, were built in Japan. The others, Jin Hyang, New Legend Pearl, SJN Nordic, Tenor, TPC Lyttelton and Froinjgracht, were built in China.
The last-mentioned, on its its maiden voyage in December, arrived from Vietnam with wind turbine columns for TrustPower's Mahinerangi project. The turbines themselves are being transported by the 7576gt general cargo ship BBC Brazil, due here on January 25.
