Evergreen plans massive fleet expansion

Evergreen Marine, Taiwan’s largest shipping company, is set for a massive expansion of its containership fleet with plans to order 54 vessels during the next 10 years. This is in addition to the 10 boxships the company has ordered from Japanese shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It is estimated that the total cost of the 54 ships will be $4.1 billion and represents one of the largest newbuilding investments ever made by a shipowners.

The shipbuilding contracts will be shared between Japanese and South Korean yards.

The 54 vessels will include 20 units of 8,000TEU, 30 of 7,000TEU and four of 4,500TEU.

Evergreen has a strong relationship with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, having placed contracts for 38 vessels with the Japanese yard since 1992. Mitsubishi is currently building 10 containerships of 6,724TEU for Evergreen in a deal agreed last summer. The first 300metre vessel is due for delivery in September 2005 while the others will be delivered at the rate of about four per year.

It is possible that Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries will build the 8,000TEU vessels while Mitsubishi is likely to win the contract to build the 7,000TEU ships which will be delivered after 2008. The new and existing newbuildings would help Evergreen Marine more than double its container shipping capacity by 2010.