This month there has already been an interesting line-up of Japanese-built, handysize bulk/lumber carriers calling to discharge phosphate at Ravensbourne, or to load logs at Port Chalmers.
The latest of these to call was the 17,075gt, Hong Kong-registered Pacific ID which berthed at Ravensbourne yesterday.
After discharging there it will move up to Leith wharf to load logs, the second shipment to be loaded there this year.
This vessel is a unit of a fleet that comes under the control of the Danish Investment Group of Hellerup.
In recent years they have been building up a sizeable fleet of handysize vessels by acquiring second-hand tonnage or investing in new ships, all for chartering out. Members of the fleet have been calling over the past two years.
They can be easily identified by their names which includes the initials ID either as a prefix or suffix.
An example of the former was the 17,018gt, ID Black Sea, which had only been in service for four months when it loaded scrap metal at Dunedin last February. The similar-sized, 17,075gt Pacific ID has been here before. It had only been in service for 13 months when it visited Ravensbourne in March, 1996.
At the time it was owned by Astrea Maritime S.
A. and was trading as Atlantic Bulker under the flag of Panama. The vessel was then on charter to the well-known Copenhagen firm of J.
Lauritzen A/S, was painted in its colours and was displaying Lauritzen Bulkers on the hull. A change of ownership in 2003 saw the vessel being renamed Tauroa Point when it joined the Pacific Basin fleet and was transferred to Hong Kong registry.
The following year it was renamed Patagonia.
Since 2007 it has been serving under its current name, owned within the Danish Investment Group by K/S Danskib 55 on the Hong Kong register. Making a return visit at the weekend, for logs, was the 17,423gt, 2003-built, Panama flag Ocean Star.
This ship was here for a similar cargo last November, but on its first call in August, 2005, loaded scrap at Dunedin. I see that the Hong Kong-registered, 2-year old Belle Masuka is coming back at the end of the month to load another shipment of logs.
This 17,971gt vessel previously visited the port in April, 2009. Two vessels here for the first time early in the month to load logs, were Genco Champion and Global Standard.
They were registered at Hong Kong and Panama respectively. After discharging at Ravensbourne, the latter vessel went to sea to clean-out the holds, before coming back into Port Chalmers.
The 17,070gt, 28,050dwt vessel owned by Tradewind Navigation S.
A. was on its maiden voyage, having only been completed early in March. The 16,960gt Genco Champion, owned by a one-ship company, Genco Champion Ltd, has only carried this name since March, 2008, when it was purchased by the New York-based Genco group.
Since being delivered in January, 2006, it had served the Bahamas-registered fleet of the Evalend Shipping Company of Athens as Stentor. These interests were represented here in the first few years of this decade by Ambassador, Orchid Bay, and Patriot.
All these vessels discharged phosphate and then loaded logs.
Senator, another unit of the fleet, discharged cement at Dunedin.
