Evening all,
Sunday 15 May Evening Update
Well I don't think there is any doubt that
THEBEN is carrying Teslas!
Her itinerary is also in no doubt - she's heading to Zeebrugge and is scheduled to arrive there on 14 Jun . She'll take a refuel off Singapore on the way but no Southampton. That was on her original itinerary but it changed. Speaking of old itineraries, I thought I had made it clear that THEBEN took over the itinerary from GRAND PAVO. So don't place your hopes in GRAND PAVO - that ship has already sailed - literally. She is already enroute to Singapore and so will not be calling in to Shanghai. As far for the question as to whether THEBEN is carrying any RHD cars - the answer has to be perhaps, for Ireland, but not for the UK. If there were cars for the UK she would call at Southampton - much cheaper than offloading in Zeebrugge and crossloading on to another ship. Tesla have done that in the past, it was expensive and so they invested some big money in Southampton. Southampton was deleted from her itinerary for a reason - accept it. By the way, I can't help but be impressed with the speed of loading of THEBEN - 4000 cars during a 36 hr port stay is probably some sort of record for Shanghai South.
MORNING PEACE is at anchor off Shanghai. I know she's not my favourite but since THEBEN I'm prepared to be swayed by the obvious itinerary. She's not due to dock until next Saturday and so there is time for that itinerary to be tweaked to more of my liking. At the moment she's due to arrive in Southampton on 21 June.
RCC EUROPE is still of interest despite the fact that she has changed her destination again. She is now heading to CN NHP. I can't find that UN location code. Ships heading to Shanghai South in the past have used some unusual codes as well as a standard Shanghai one. I'm hoping she may be heading to Shanghai South and we won't have long to wait. We know she is coming to Europe thanks to some quite excellent research by
@Darreno earlier today.
The big question is how many cars will be coming to the UK? I've seen some fanciful figures being bandied around - the lockdown in Shanghai has not gone away and it's as strict as ever - just look what the reporter was wearing! The closed-loop scheme didn't work. It didn't work for Sony either. Until the Chinese government change their policy towards COVID, I can't see many cars being produced by the Shanghai GF for some time.
GLOVIS SPLENDOR is enjoying calm seas and generally overcast skies resulting in temperatures of around 30C. She is currently making about 17.5 kts and is bang-on schedule to make Suez on 27 May. I estimate she should arrive in Koper around 02 Jun.
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