As the rates for freight routes between East Asia and Europe continue rising amid a strong seasonal demand, Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) yesterday said it aimed to return to profitable operations for the quarter.
The container shipping company, part of the Evergreen Group (長榮集團), said that freight rates have trended upward over the past few months.
The upturn in prices for routes between East Asia and Europe has been high enough for the company to make profits.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“The sentiment of the container shipping sector is in line with my expectations that it would continue to move in a positive direction,” group vice chairman Bronson Hsieh (謝志堅) told a media briefing, before accepting delivery of an L-type vessel with capacity of 8,508 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) — christened Ever Loading (長盛輪) — from the nation’s only shipbuilder, CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船).
Last month, Hsieh said he was upbeat about the sector, because he could almost see “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
The July-to-September quarter is traditionally a peak period for container shipments due to strong seasonal demand.
Based on the latest data offered by market researchers, routes to Europe and the US may see a further increase in rates next month, in line with Hsieh’s optimistic view.
Evergreen Marine has yet to release its earnings report for the second quarter.
The nation’s largest container shipment company reported a NT$1.69 billion (US$56.24 million) net loss in the first quarter.
The recovery in the global economy has had a positive impact on global exports and therefore leading to a higher volume of container shipments.
Evergreen Marine said it is ready to welcome more vessels to expand its fleet, to reflect the projected increase in demand.
The container ship of which Evergreen Group took delivery yesterday is the sixth of 10 container ships it ordered in May 2011 and the group’s 26th L-type vessel, with the remaining four vessels scheduled to be delivered by the third quarter of next year.
Compared with the previous 8,500-TEU vessel design, the new type of container ship is able to help Evergreen Group cut fuel costs by 20 to 30 percent, Hsieh said.
The group is to make use of these 8,508-TEU container ships, which cost around US$100 million per vessel, to launch a new service between Asia and the East Coast of the US via the Suez Canal.
Evergreen Group commenced its latest fleet renewal program in 2010, with the company scheduled to take delivery of a total of 55 new ships above 8,000 TEUs between 2012 and 2017.
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