Cement Carrier ship Sunnanvik

[Guest]

To add a bit to what Mr. Link said regarding Bath shipments: LaFarge has been using the Petite Forte/St. Marys Cement as a "2nd boat" operating out of Bath for over a year now. During that period it has made only occasional visits to Bowmanville. There have been a couple split loads taken on at both Bath and Bowmanville, which have been delivered to the Holcim and St. Marys terminals in Cleveland. Her trips for LaFarge/Holcim have been mostly to Cleveland, with occasional visits to Toronto and a couple of Detroits this year as well. This may be an effort to keep the main vessel, currently the Sunnanvik, closer to Bath at all times by giving her short runs to Oswego, Toronto, and Buffalo.

Before last year, LaFarge had been using either the NACC Alicudi or NACC Capri as the main boat, with the NACC Argonaut or Petite Forte filling in as a second boat when needed. My assumption is that when the new ship replacing the Sunnanvik is completed, they will no longer need two ships operating out of Bath. The article announcing its construction stated that it will "replace two older vessels". For years the English River was the sole boat on this run, and I believe they are aiming to return to that.

This arrangement with the Petite Forte also implies, to me, that St. Marys Cement does not need a second boat running out of Bowmanville currently. My guess is that this is due to the boats from Charlevoix now frequenting the company terminals in Toledo and Cleveland, which was extremely uncommon until about 2020. Most of the Petite Forte's deliveries for St. Marys were to these two docks.

[Mr Link]

Denny,
About a month ago CSL announced that its joint venture Eureka Shipping is going to build a new cement carrier in the Netherlands for use on the Great Lakes. (they apparently got the Lafarge Canada [aka Holcim] business out of Bath Ontario, which Algoma's joint venture NACC was hauling for the past several years.) In the meantime, Eureka Shipping sent an existing vessel , the Sunnanvik, to transport this cement until the new vessel is ready sometime in 2025. Sunnanvik is somewhat unique in that it has been retrofitted with Venofoil wings, which are modern wind-powered (ie sail) propulsion assistance devices.

Here is a copy of CSL's press release from April 16: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-rele ... Trade.html

And here is CSL's webpage for the Sunnanvik: https://cslships.com/vessel/sunnavik/

Although the Sunnavik seems to be carrying most of the product out of Bath, St. Mary's tug barge Petite Forte/St. Marys Cement appeared to carry a load from Bath to Detroit about a week ago. Probably a short term contract.

The NACC Alicudi and NACC Capri are now working in Europe and the NACC Quebec and NACC Argonaut appear to be hauling exclusively out of Port Daniel-Gascons for St Marys Cement (which bought out the fairly new McInnis Cement plant at Port Daniel-Gascons)

[William Lafferty]

ISM manager: CSL Group, Inc., Montréal
Commercial manager: SMT Shipping (Cyprus) Ltd., Limassol
Registered owner: Muskoka Sun Shipping Ltd., Limassol, c/o SMT Shipping (Cyprus) Ltd., Limassol

[Denny]

I have seen this vessel often on the Seaway’s website and read about them here on the News Page. However, I don’t see any references or information published anywhere as far as who actually owns this vessel, operates and or manages it? Can someone please provide a full detailed information as far as this ship, owners, operators and managers along with any company websites for it? I don’t believe it is listed in the 2024 Know Your Ships book nor is it listed on Boatnerd under the Fleet Photo Gallery? Thanks for any information.