Articles – Nirint Canada

Sailing South

NIRINT recently added additional service between Halifax and ports in Cuba and the Caribbean. The new service employs the NIRINT Commander, which has a capacity of 377 TEUs. The vessel will transport heavy equipment, rolling machinery, containers and project cargo from Pier 27 in the Port of Halifax. “It’s a multi-purpose vessel that is geared up to transport 67 tonnes”, explains Elias Hage, director of NIRINT Canada.

The N. Commander will travel on a rotation between Halifax and the Cuban cities of Moa, Matanzas and Havana. Multifunctional terminals in all ports of call ensure central coordination of planning, scheduling and execution, complimenting NIRINT’s multi-purpose fleet. The new service compliments the Dutch-based company’s existing service to Europe, which has ran for three years and calls on the port of Moerdijk, Holland, plus Halifax.

El “Nirint Holland” escala en Bilbao

Nirint Shipping opens Beijing office

Shipping line not impressed

Cargo not moving fast enough
By TOM PETERS Business Reporter

A regular caller at the Port of Halifax is seeking improved labour productivity and is putting the port labour force under close scrutiny.

Nirint Shipping of Rotterdam, which comes to Halifax about 50 times a year, is not impressed with the labour service at piers 9A and 27, where its vessels dock.

Elias Hage of said Tuesday the line “hasn’t seen any improvement whatsoever in the past two years.” And the poor production levels add to the line’s overall costs, he said.

Nirint vessels are multi-purpose conventional cargo ships with their own cranes. They handle various types of cargo, including containers. The line handles about 100,000 tonnes of import and export cargo annually through Halifax.

Mr. Hage, who recently met with the Halifax Employers Association, told the group the shipping line was “not satisfied” with productivity and said improvements are needed “with labour, management at the docks concerning loading and discharging, and planning in advance.”

He said there is also concern about the Port of Halifax’s rate structure applied to conventional cargo, “because it does not benefit people to ship conventional cargo via Halifax, only containers,” noting that container cargo through the port has been declining.

The Nirint vessels have their own pedestal cranes for handling cargo, and the lack of labourers with sufficient experience in using these cranes is a major part of the problem. Mr. Hage said the line sees much better production levels at other ports using these cranes than in Halifax.

Richard Moore, president and CEO of the employers association, acknowledged there are issues that came to a head recently with the line’s vessel Nirint Commander.

He said the association has been looking at ways to find enough qualified operators for these cranes.

But he said there are fewer ships with that type of equipment coming into the port and “we do training on the ships, so there is less opportunity for some of our newly trained people to get experience.”

Mr. Moore said the association is trying to revise its training program and has committed itself to making trainers available to help out inexperienced people. The association also does some training off site at the Operating Engineers Training Institute of Nova Scotia at Falmouth, near Windsor, which has a crane program.

“So it is a work in progress, and hopefully things will improve,” he said.

Mr. Hage said Nirint, which added a sixth vessel into its services through Halifax in mid-April, will carefully monitor the situation and if there is no improvement over the next three to six months will re-evaluate its situation in Halifax.

Nirint Line arrives in Saint John to export lumber to Ireland

Netherlands-based Nirint Shipping made its inaugural entry into the Port of Saint John with the M/V Nirint Pride on Aug. 17. A resurgence of lumber exports attracted the shipping line to the port and at least three additional calls are planned this year. “Nirint is very interested in the Port of Saint John and the new business this relationship creates,” said Elias Hage. The Nirint Pride docked at Lower Cove Terminal where Furncan Marine stevedores and the ships’ cranes carefully manoeuvred 6,000 cubic metres of European construction grade lumber. “We are quite happy with this new business,” said Murray Gorodensky, executive vicepresident of Empire Stevedoring, the parent company of Furncan Marine. “The ship has its own gear and is box-shaped for this type of cargo, so it’s good for the longshoremen and the Port of Saint John.

The ship arrived in Saint John from the Caribbean via Halifax. “We are very pleased to have secured another four ships to export between four and six thousand cubic metres per vessel to Bellview Port in Waterford, Ireland, just outside of Dublin,” said Todd Pickard of New Brunswick wholesale lumber company Drakcip Inc. Earlier this year, Mr. Pickard, with the help of other transportation partners, began exporting lumber through Saint John for the first time in more than a decade. “That separate traffic is continuing through the Port of Saint John as well,” he noted. “There is another shipment in September taking lumber to the U.K.

The Ireland-destined cargo was initiated by Business New Brunswick and the Canadian consulate in Ireland. “This is just the beginning”, said Ed Doherty, MLA for Saint John Harbour, who was on hand for a reception held aboard the bridge of the ship. “With the increase in the Canadian dollar and the slowdown in the American housing markets, there are all sorts of opportunities in Europe. If New Brunswick is going to be self-sufficient, we must continue to use the port, which the city was built around and is the jewel of our transportation system.

The cargo was part of a $6-million deal concluded by Fredericton-based lumber company M.L. Wilkins & Son Ltd. “This is the entire production of our mills”, said Brent Wilkins, whose company employs 100 fulltime workers year-round. Europe’s traditional lumber sources in Scandinavia and Russia have been forced to cut back on harvesting. M.L. Wilkins was able to capitalize on that demand by adapting its plants to produce lumber according to European dimensions and grade. A newcomer to Saint John, Nirint operates a European service as well as a Caribbean service that sails from the ports of Montreal and Halifax to the Dominican Republic and Cuba, as well as Central American and Caribbean destinations on inducement.

Nirint Shipping Makes First-Ever Call for New Lumber Exports

(Saint John) A strong resurgence of lumber exports to the Port of Saint John has attracted another new shipping line which is looking to call on a regular basis. Nirint Shipping, based in the Netherlands, makes its inaugural entry into the Port of Saint John on Friday, August 17, 2007 with the M/V Nirint Pride.

“Nirint is very interested in the Port of Saint John, and the new business this relationship creates,” said Elias Hage, director of NIRINT. Mr. Hage visited Port of Saint John facilities early this year with Nirint representatives and recognized the marine and road transportation advantages in the region. “We are looking to call the Port of Saint John on a regular basis, and will be announcing more scheduled calls soon.”

The Nirint Pride is docking at Lower Cove Terminal where Furncan Marine stevedores and the ships’ cranes carefully maneuvered 6,000-cubic-meters of European construction grade lumber. “We are quite happy with this new business,” commented Murray Gorodensky, Executive Vice President of Empire Stevedoring, the parent company of Furncan Marine in Saint John. “The ship has its own gear and is boxed shaped for this type of cargo so it’s good for the longshoremen and the Port of Saint John”.

The ship will arrive in Saint John for forest products from the Caribbean via Halifax. “We are very pleased to have secured another four ships to export between four and six thousand cubic-metres-per-vessel to Bellview Port in Waterford, Ireland just outside of Dublin”, explains Todd Pickard, of NB wholesale lumber company Drakcip Inc. Earlier this year, Mr. Pickard, with the help of other transportation partners, began exporting lumber through Saint John for the first time since 1993. “That separate traffic is continuing through the Port of Saint John as well,” he noted. “There is another shipment in September taking lumber to the UK.”

Mr. Pickard says contacts to establish sales of the Irish destined cargo were initiated by the Business New Brunswick and the Canadian Consulate in Ireland. “The product from New Brunswick mills, road transportation by General Freight and the people at Furncan Marine are all working hard in a very challenging forest products market to meet the needs of our niche customers overseas,” says Mr. Pickard who is now prospecting for additional exports to the Middle East.

Newcomers to Saint John, Nirint operates a European service as well as a Caribbean Service that sails from the ports of Montreal and Halifax to the Dominican Republic and Cuba, as well as Central American and Caribbean destinations on inducement. Nirint Shipping is a member of the Netherlands-based Fondel Group which is active in metal trading, shipping, retail and environmental services.

“Despite strong global competition in the forest products sector and a slowdown in housing starts in the U.S., we are delighted to welcome another European shipping line for NB lumber,” said Captain Al Soppitt, President and CEO of the Saint John Port Authority. “We are proving once again that our strategic location and cargo handling expertise offers significant advantages to our transportation partners.”

MEDIA CONTACT:
Capt. Alwyn G. Soppitt
President & CEO
Saint John Port Authority
Tel: (506) 636-4884

NIRINT returns to Montreal

NIRINT will return to Montreal in April after making four calls to the port last year. The NIRINT vessel NIRINT Commander called Montreal’s Bickerdike Terminal, operated by Empire Stevedoring Co. Ltd., in June, August, October and December of last year. Montreal Port of Authority officials greeted the ship’s crew and presented a special plaque to its captain to mark the return of the carrier to Montreal.

“NIRINT vessels call the Port of Montreal once every six weeks”, said Elias Hage, director of NIRINT Canada. “The service is temporarily suspended in the winter season – from the end of December until early April – due to winter navigation”.

NIRINT is a multipurpose liner service that specializes in project cargo, heavy-lifts, rolling stock, machinery, steel and piping, and general cargo.

It operates a Caribbean Service with the box-shaped N. Commander, which is capable of lifting cargo weighing up to 65 tonnes. The conventional/breakbulk service sails from the Port of Montreal to Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, but can also call other Central American and Caribbean destinations on inducement.

NIRINT also operates a scheduled conventional/multipurpose service using three sister vessels from Halifax and the St. Lawrence to the Netherlands and Spain, and through transshipment to the Mediterranean, Middle East and Persian Gulf. The three box-shaped vessel on this rotation can lift pieces weighing up to 300 tonnes.

NIRINT is a member of Fondel Group, based in the Netherlands. It is active in metal trading, shipping, retail and environmental services.

New service from Halifax to Cuba

The port of Halifax has another connection to Cuba and the Caribbean.

NIRINT has started a direct conventional/breakbulk/container service from Halifax to Cuba and other Caribbean ports on inducement. The Cuban ports include Moa, Havana and Matanzas.

Elias Hage said NIRINT has deployed the N. Commander for the service. It sails from Halifax once every two weeks. The vessel, which has capacity of 277 TEUs and crane capacity of 67 tonnes, can handle both breakbulk and containers.

Holland-based NIRINT, which has head offices in Rotterdam, has been calling Halifax occasionally for the past several years and on a regular basis, every 14 days, since 2003.

NIRINT vessels Nirint Pride, Nirint Atlas and Nirint Champion are multipurpose heavy-lift vessels. Built between 1999 and 2000, they have cranes capable of lifting up to 300 tonnes.

These three ships provide service from Halifax to Moredijk, Holland, and Bilbao, Spain.

NIRINT offers Canadians a regular conventional/breakbulk/container service to Europe and will soon have connections to the Mediterranean and Middle East region.