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.