Biggest container ship ever to visit Saint John a sign of growing opportunities, port says

Hannah Rudderham · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 26, 2025 3:17 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Some Saint John residents whitethorn person noticed a immense vessel successful the harbour this week. 

The Santa Rosa, which is astir the magnitude of 3 shot fields, was the largest instrumentality vessel ever to sojourn the port.

"We had 4 cranes successful cognition astatine the aforesaid time, which … is precise symbolic of our maturation journey," said Craig Estabrooks, the CEO and president of Port Saint John.

The ship's sojourn connected Tuesday was a long clip coming, and the larboard has worked connected being able to accommodate vessels of this size, Estabrooks said. 

Last year, a $205 cardinal modernization task was completed at Port Saint John's westbound broadside terminals. The project included a 345-metre berth, the summation of caller refrigerated towers, and the dredging of the main transmission to marque it deeper and wider.  

WATCH | Why bigger ships volition beryllium calling connected Saint John: 

Estabrooks said the summation of 2 concern cranes besides made larger vessels a possibility. 

The Port Saint John squad went to Quebec City past fall, said Estabrooks, to program for the Santa Rosa's accomplishment and marque surethe vessel could beryllium accommodated in all types of upwind conditions.

Another milestone happened earlier this month, helium said. A caller concern betwixt Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, called Gemini Cooperation, which has a fleet of 290 vessels, began calling connected Saint John, helium said. 

The Santa Rosa, owned by Maersk, was the 4th ship in the rotation to call, each bigger than the last, Estabrooks said.

"We bash expect, arsenic that concern grows and we invited much vessels arsenic portion of the co-operation, that they'll get adjacent bigger."

Estabrooks said the manufacture has seen a inclination toward larger vessels successful the last 10 to 15 years, truthful it's important Saint john is capable to grip ships of Santa Rosa's size.

Currently, the larboard is pursuing Trans-Pacific connections to Asia, which is thing it doesn't person astatine the moment, helium said. For journeys of that length, larger vessels are used.. 

"Being capable to marketplace ourselves arsenic having capableness with those larger vessels is going to beryllium cardinal to pull those new, longer journeys," Estabrooks said.