News / Evergreen orders 60,500 new containers for growing liner fleet

Evergreen has ordered 60,500 new containers at a cost of nearly $187m.

Filings to the Taiwan Stock Exchange say 23,000 containers have been ordered from CXIC Group, 21,000 from Guangdong Fuwa Equipment Manufacturing and 16,500 from Dong Fang International, the latter a unit of Cosco Shipping Development.

Container manufacturers, predominantly in China, have reported surging orders as the Red Sea crisis absorbs shipping and equipment supply, with many factories occupied until year-end.

It is Evergreen’s second round of substantial capital expenditure this year. In June, the seventh-largest box line ordered six 2,400 teu methanol, dual-fuelled ships from CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding, for $348m, and 50,000 containers from Dong Fang, China International Marine Containers and Singamas, spending around $162m.

And last week, Alphaliner reported that the carrier had asked major shipbuilders to submit quotes for 11 methanol dual-fuelled 24,000 teu ultra-large container vessels.

The Taiwanese operator said it needed more containers in line with its fleet growth, and announced the order after last week’s disclosure that net profit for the first nine months of 2024 had tripled from the year-ago period, to $3.5bn, on revenue up 68%, to $11bn. The Red Sea crisis driving container freight rates to levels not seen since Covid.

On Friday, EMC chairman Chang Yen-I, Taiwan’s minister for transportation and communications, Chen Shih Kai, Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chi Mai and Taiwan International Ports Corp chairman Lee Hsien-Yi, officially opened Kaohsiung port’s Terminal 7, the first fully automated container terminal on the island. The 149ha facility, occupying 2.4km of coastline, will be Evergreen’s home base in Kaohsiung.

The terminal has five deepwater berths and can accommodate up to four 24,000 teu ships at the same time. Currently, it has an annual processing capacity of 4.5m teu.

Terminal 7 took four years to build, at a cost of approximately $1bn, of which the government invested around $642m and Evergreen contributed the rest.