April 30, 2019 — On 23 April, the largest vessel to ever call on the International Marine Terminal in Portland, Maine arrived for the first time.
The ship, named the Pictor J, is a 461-foot container ship belonging to Eimskip, an Icelandic freight company that has headquarters in Portland. The new ship is longer, wider, and faster than any Eimskip ship before it and has nearly twice the carrying capacity of the old ships – 925 20-foot shipping containers versus the previous 505.
While 23 April was the first visit, it won’t be the last. The Pictor J is just the first of three ships being built that will be used collaboratively by Royal Arctic Line (RAL) and Eimskip, which was given formal approval for a Vessel Sharing Agreement by the Icelandic Competition Authority on 23 April. According to a release by RAL, Eimskip will own two of the ships, while RAL will own one. Two more ships are expected to be delivered by fall, increasing the amount of cargo going to and from Portland weekly.
“For Maine seafood processors that are importing fish, this is going to be good news,” Dana Eidsness, director of the Maine North Atlantic Development Office at the Maine International Trade Center, told SeafoodSource.
The new ships and expanded services, said Eidness, will allow for better freight rates, and weekly trips to smaller west Nordic markets.
“The opportunity for Maine in all of this is via our existing connection to Iceland through Eimskip service,” she said. “Using Iceland as a hub we can send cargo via this weekly service schedule.”