Evergreen opens Mediterranean transshipment center in Italy

Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) launched yesterday its Mediterranean transshipment center at Taranto Port in Italy, company officials were quoted as saying.

"Taranto Terminal at the southern end of Italy will improve our efficiency. Currently, our vessels must queue up at other Italian deep-water ports," Evergreen spokeswoman Chen Si-chia said.

"Taranto is close to many factories which are a source of outgoing containers. Arriving cargo can be delivered to other parts of Italy by an expressway and a railway," she said.

Evergreen Marine signed a 60-year contract with Taranto Port in 1998 to build the transshipment center for the Mediterranean.

Taranto Terminal is Evergreen's third transshipment centre after the Kaohsiung Terminal in south Taiwan and the Colon Terminal at Coco Solo, 80km north of Panama City, in Central America.

Construction is to be carried out in two phases. The first phase, which has just been completed, involves a 15m-deep, 1,000m-long terminal which can berth three container ships.

The second-phase will extend the terminal to 2,050m, allowing it to berth four more container ships.

"When we will start the second-phase construction depends on the operation of the terminal," Chen said.

Evergreen Group has three main shipping companies -- Evergreen, Uniglory Marine Corp (立榮海運) and Evergreen International Corp (長榮國際), a private shipping company in Panama.

Evergreen Marine has a fleet of 130 container ships.

Last year, the London-based shipping monthly Containerization International rated Evergreen as the world's second-largest shipping company after Maersk-Sealand.