Evergreen Marine (長榮海運) intends to order 100 container ships next year to expand its fleet to nearly 300, Evergreen founder Chang Jung-fa (張榮發) said in an interview published on Sunday.
Chang told the Chinese-language United Daily News he hopes to reach the goal of making Evergreen the world’s largest container line in his lifetime.
As the global financial crisis is coming to an end, Chang said, Evergreen plans to order 100 container ships next year.
“The shipping business is not like running a grocery store. You have to have vision,” he said.
Chang said in 2007 that an economic recovery would not begin until 2012, so Evergreen had not invested in new ships in the past two years.
Chang, 81, said that last year a French shipping tycoon invited him jointly to build a 15,000-TEU container ship. Chang turned down the offer because he knew the time was not right.
But now the time had come to expand the fleet.
Currently, the world’s top five container shipping companies are AP Moller-Maersk (550 ships), Mediterranean Shipping Co MSC (391) CMA (360), Evergreen (168) and Hapag-Lloyd (115).
If Evergreen orders 100 more ships, it will boost the fleet to 268, but its world ranking would still be world No. 4.
Chang is the founder of the Evergreen Group, which launched Evergreen Marine in 1968 and the EVA Air in 1991.
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