Evergreen to build 49 boxships for $3 billion

Evergreen to build 49 boxships for $3 billion    Chang Yung-fa, founder and chairman of the Evergreen shipping group, said that his group plans to build 49 new containerships over the next decade at a total cost of about $3 billion.
   Chang told the Wall Street Journal that the program will include 24 vessels of 6,000-TEU capacity.
   In July, Evergreen group already ordered 10 post-Panamax container
vessels of about 6,700-TEU capacity from the Japanese shipyard Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The “S-class” owned ships will complement a series of eight larger 8,100-TEU vessels to be chartered by Evergreen from the German non-operating owner Conti Reederei, Evergreen confirmed recently.
   Chang told the Wall Street Journal that the 6,000-TEU vessel orders would also probably be placed with the Mitsubishi shipyard. He commented that “there are still a great deal of untapped markets to be ventured with.”
   Commenting on the 49-ship plan, a spokesman for Evergreen said that the program was not exceptional when considering that it is equivalent to four or five new containerships a year.
   According to ComPairData, the global liner shipping database, Evergreen is currently the world’s third-largest container shipping group, with 147 owned or chartered ships and a total shipboard capacity of 438,124 TEUS.