EVERGREEN’S SLOT CAPACITY TO EXCEED 350,000 TEUS

EVERGREEN’S SLOT CAPACITY TO EXCEED 350,000 TEUS    The containership fleet owned by Taiwan’s Evergreen group will exceed 350,000 TEUs within a year, following delivery of new container vessels.
   The Taiwanese shipping group currently owns 122 vessels with a total slot capacity of 323,354 TEUs. Evergreen ranks as the world’s second largest container shipping line in terms of capacity, behind Maersk Sealand, which has a vessel capacity of over 600,000 TEUs.
   “According to the present newbuilding plan, capacity will reach 362,940 TEU by mid 2001, totaling 134 vessels,” said a spokesman for Evergreen’s Taipei head office.
   The fleet of Evergreen will expand well above this level when all the ships ordered last October have been delivered. In October, the Evergreen group ordered five 6,046-TEU “K-type” vessels, due to be delivered in 2001 and 2002. The Taiwanese giant also
announced an order for 20 ships of 3,000-TEU.
   At present, Evergreen is taking delivery of a series of 17 “U-type” vessels of 5,364-TEU capacity, the last of which will be delivered next year. By the end of 2002, the largest containerships in the Evergreen fleet will be five 6,046-TEU vessels, 17 of 5,364-TEU, 10 of 4,211-TEU and 10 of 4,173-TEU.