Evergreen orders 14 boxships, plans more orders

Evergreen orders 14 boxships, plans more orders    Chang Yung-fa, founder and chairman of the Evergreen shipping group, said his group has ordered 14 large containerships from the Japanese shipyard Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and plans to order another 20 “S-type” vessels of 7,000-TEU capacities from the same shipyard after the fall of 2008 and another 20 “B-type” ships of 8,000 TEUs.
   The total order, if confirmed in full, represents 54 ships and exceeds the 49-ship, $3-billion ship order plan announced by Chang in 2003.
   The latest order from Mitsubishi is for 10 ships of 7,000-TEU capacities and four of 4,500 TEUs, due to be delivered between August 2005 and August 2008.
   The planned orders of the extra 20 ships of 7,000 TEUs after fall of 2008 would increase to 30 the number of such ships in the Evergreen fleet.
   Commenting on the planned order for 8,000-TEU ships, Chang said Evergreen will have technical talks with the Korean shipyard Samsung. Until now, Evergreen has ordered containerships only from shipyards in Japan and Taiwan.
   Evergreen will also charter eight 8,100-TEU vessels from the German non-operating owner Conti Reederei under an agreement made last year.