Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the nation’s largest container shipping firm in terms of fleet size, on Tuesday next week is to take delivery of the last L-type container ships of the 20-vessel order it placed with South Korea-based Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd.
The container shipping arm of Evergreen Group (長榮集團) will deploy the L-type vessel with a capacity of 8,508 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) — christened Ever Lucky (長幸輪) yesterday — on the service between the Far East and the west coast of the US.
Evergreen Group commenced its fleet renewal plan in 2010, which in total includes 30 L-type vessels, 20 of which have been ordered from Samsung and the other 10 from Taiwan’s only listed shipbuilder, CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船), from which the group has taken delivery of five ships.
Photo provided by evergreen marine
“Due to the smooth implementation of our fleet renewal program, we can continue to provide a quality service to our customers and enhance the competitiveness of our operating fleet within the global market,” group vice chairman Lin Shing-san (林省三) said in a speech during the vessel’s naming ceremony at Geoje Island, South Korea.
Following the conclusion of the project with Samsung by taking delivery of the Ever Lucky — the 25th L-type vessel of Evergreen Marine’s operating fleet — the group is ready to welcome the remaining five ships of the same type from CSBC Corp, which will be fully delivered by the third quarter next year.
While integrating the new ships into its fleet, Evergreen is planning to return two dozen chartered vessels during the course of this year and next.
Evergreen Marine is gradually upgrading its operating capacity to meet increasing market demand as the global economy recovers, group vice chairman Bronson Hsieh (謝志堅) said last month that he could almost see “the light at the end of the tunnel” for the container shipping industry.
In spite of the increase in overall tonnage, the container shipper expects to maintain last year’s level of total fuel consumption by boosting the new ships’ efficiency, to effectively reduce the unit cost of the company and enhance its market competitiveness.
The company posted a net loss of NT$1.69 billion (US$56.5 million), or NT$0.49 per share, for the first three months of the year, with Hsieh hoping for a rebound in the second half of the year to help the company turn a profit for the year.
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