Taiwan’s Evergreen Group (長榮集團) will order 10 ships from the nation’s leading shipyard for US$1.03 billion, powering ahead with a plan to more than double its container fleet, a report said yesterday.
Tang Tay-ping (譚泰平), president of CSBC Corp, Taiwan (CSBC, 台灣國際造船), told the Chinese-language Commercial Times that his company was expected to obtain the order before the end of this month.
If finalized, the contract would require construction of 10 8,000-TEU (20ft equivalent) container vessels at a total price of NT$33.1 billion (US$1.03 billion), with the first ships due for delivery in 2014, the paper said.
Evergreen said the deal was not finalized when reached for comment.
The report came after Evergreen Marine, the world’s fourth largest shipping firm, ordered 10 ships from Samsung Heavy Industries of South Korea for US$1.03 billion early this month.
Group chairman Chang Yung-fa (張榮發) told the media earlier this year that Evergreen Marine would spend more than US$5 billion to boost by 100 its current fleet of 81.
The 100 ships may cost up to NT$170 billion, he said.
Chang was quoted in the press late last year as saying it was a good time to start acquiring more ships as the global recession was coming to an end.
In addition to its 81 container ships, Evergreen charters another 69.
Meanwhile, Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海航運) bought 1,800 shipping containers from China International Marine Containers (Group) Ltd (中集集團) for US$9.25 million, the Taipei-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday.
The company also said it added two vessels to a container-ship purchase order from CSBC, raising its budget for the orders by US$23.5 million to US$639.4 million.
Wan Hai now expects to take delivery of 14 ships beginning in the second quarter of 2012, it said in another exchange filing.
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