Mid January, 2019

Introduction

Our balcony looks over the Port of San Juan. I can watch the cruise ships enter and leave port, and observe the freighters coming and going. It has become pretty routine by now, but every once in a while I notice things and wonder about them. This has happened three times in the last couple of weeks.

Steel

Pre-Maria, Pre Tariff

Before Hurricane Maria, I would see a ship carrying steel come into port about every six or seven weeks. Here is an image from pre-Maria.

The Sheng Qiang, registered in Hong Kong, delivered steel to the Port of San Juan in February 2017. When a ship docks at Pier 14, it is met by a phalanx of fork lifts. In this case, the ship’s cranes lifted steel from the hold to dockside, and the forklifts moved the steel to different locations on the pier.

Although I don’t know for sure, I have to think this was steel from China. Since it was in a Chinese ship, and carried steel from China, the Jones Act did not pertain. And that meant it was at market price.

I’m not sure what happened to all that steel. I’m sure much of it stayed here for construction projects on the island. Perhaps some of it was transshipped, on smaller vessels, to Caribbean islands with more modest ports and docking facilities.

Post-Maria, Post Tariff

But things have changed. President Trump has instituted tariffs on Chinese steel. I haven’t noticed any steel shipments since I arrived in late October, 2018. It is possible steel has come into the New Port. I can see ships entering there, but I can’t see the unloading areas. But it seems most ships to the New Port are container ships, not bulk freighters.

Last week a steel shipment did arrive, but it was not on a Chinese vessel.

The Donaugracht arrived in port about a week ago. Registered in Amsterdam, she belongs to the Spliethoff fleet. According to the company website, their ships work multiple routes, including the Baltic/Northern Europe to the Caribbean. Interestingly, the website does not mention Puerto Rico as a destination. One would have to think the Donaugracht’s appearance here was out of the ordinary.

She carried steel – rebars and wire rolls. I would have to think it was not Chinese steel. Was it European? From somewhere not affected by Trump’s tariffs? I’d have to think so.

So steel, apparently non-Chinese, arrived in port from a shipping company that doesn’t typically sail here. As I say, I wonder if it all as to do with the Trump steel tariffs.

By the way, the Donaugracht had an unusual deck cargo – yachts. I wonder if rich Europeans, maybe Russian oligarchs, own them. Perhaps the yachts are being shipped here in anticipation of their owners’ arrival for the peak season here.

Click here to see an earlier post of mine about concrete and steel.

Coal

There is a bulk freighter here now delivering coal from Colombia. The UBC Toronto, registered in Cyprus, arrived here from Puerto Brisa, in Colombia. Puerto Brisa is a new port, constructed to help export coal from coal mines in the mountains of Colombia. You can see a promotional video of the new port here, complete with choral music in the background. Coal exporting has never looked or sounded so good.

Strange Thing Number One

There are several strange things about this. First, the ship’s name. When I see UBC, I think of the University of British Colombia, which is in Vancouver and not Toronto. Not unexpectedly, the University of Toronto is in Toronto, and it is not a satellite campus of the UBC, at least so far as I know.

Strange Thing Number Two

Next, why is coal being delivered to San Juan? Now, to be sure, Puerto Rico uses coal (and other fossil fuels) to generate electricity. There is a 454 MW coal-fired generation plant in Guayama, and Puerto Rico imports about 1.6 million short tons of coal from Colombia to operate it. By the way, this is about 0.2% of the coal burned in the mainland USA.

But Guayama is on the Caribbean coast, about 50 miles from San Juan. Will all this coal be trucked there? Why wasn’t the coal delivered to the port at Ponce, which is much closer to Guayama?

The unloading process is slow. Shipboard cranes lift coal by the large bucket full and empty it into a portable chute, positioned just before the ship arrives. Trucks drive under the chutes and get their fill of coal. The drivers then cover their load with a tarp and drive off. There is a steady stream of trucks. I suppose they could go from here to Guayama, but I doubt there are that many dump trucks on the island. So the coal is stockpiled somewhere close to the port. But that means the coal has to be moved twice, which is inefficient.

As I say, I have more questions than answers about this one.

The Royal Dutch Navy

The Royal Dutch Navy is in port, again. (Click here to see an earlier post on this topic). The HNLMS Zeeland, an off shore patrol vessel, is docked at Pier One in Old San Juan. The Zeeland is one of four Holland class patrol boats, at least one of which is stationed in the Caribbean to patrol around the Dutch Antilles.

The Zeeland requires a crew of 52 and carries up to 32 extra personnel – helicopter pilots and mechanics, marines to man the two fast (40 knot plus) small boats, various others. She is equipped with one main weapon – a rapid fire (up to 120 rounds per minute) 76 mm gun as well as various smaller machine guns. The prominent tower carries a Thales system phased array radar system. At a length of 355 ft, and with a displacement of about 4,000 tons, she is smaller than some luxury yachts. To see some earlier posts about luxury yachts I’ve written about, click here and here and here.

I don’t know why the Zeeland is here. I suspect the commanders are in various discussions with their US Coast Guard colleagues. I hope the crew is having fun. Perhaps I’ll run into some of them later today, at Doug’s Pub in Old San Juan.

Notes and Sources

See Wikipedia entries for Spliethoff Shipping, Donaugracht, UBC Toronto, and HNLMS Zeeland.

Click here for a useful and succinct summary of energy sources and issues in Puerto Rico as published by the US Department of Energy.

I took all the images.