According to sources, Evergreen Group on 11 July disclosed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange TWSE that the carrier firmed its long awaited orders for a new series of 16,000 teu container vessel.
Contrary to earlier reports, which suggested that Evergreen was look- ing to procure 20 ships, the carriers has now committed to a total of 24 newbuilding orders.
As expected, the shipping line split the contracts between Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Nihon Shipyard (NSY).
The Korean SHI will build 16 ships, while the Japanese NSY has been tasked with building eight units.
All 16 of the Samsung vessels will be built at the manufacturer’s main yard at Geoje Island. For the NSY ships, it is currently still un- clear which of the group’s yard will build the vessels. It is recalled that Nihon is a commercial joint venture of Japan Marine United (JMU) and Imabari Zosen, which controls several shipyards all across Japan. Deliveries could start in 2025, but the building schedule for the 24 vessels remains to be confirmed.
With yesterday’s order, Evergreen committed to its first-ever ‘alternative fuel’ ships. So far, both its fleet and orderbook entirely consisted of conventional tonnage with and without scrubbers.
Taiwan’s Evergreen Group has ordered all 24 ships through its wholly -owned Singapore-registered subsidiary Evergreen Marine (Asia) Pte. The carrier’s disclosure to the TWSE said that the vessels would cost between USD 180 M and USD 210 M per unit, but did not mention an exact price.
Samsung Heavy Industry’s separate disclosure to the Korean Stock Exchange KRX meanwhile revealed that Evergreen will pay the equiv- alent of USD 193.9 M for each of the 16 Korean-built ships at the contractually stipulated exchange rate. The eight ships from Japan are expected to have a very similar price.
Overnight, the 24 orders have added a volume of 384,000 teu to Evergreen’s 457,000 teu newbuilding pipeline, placing the carrier in fourth position after MSC (1.49 Mteu), CMA CGM (1,24 Mteu) and COSCO Group (0.97 Mteu).
In terms of specs and dimensions, the new Evergreen ships are ex- pected to be maxi-neo-panamax vessels with a length of 366.00 m and a breadth of 51.00 m (20 rows). Samsung and Nihon will typical- ly build their own in-house designs, so that the 24 vessels which con- sist of two distinct sub-types with very similar technical parameters.
Sources: Alphaliner, Evergreen, Korean Economical Daily, Offsore-energy.
