Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) has taken delivery of 16 new vessels this year and expects to take delivery of another 17 by the end of this year, including so-called “megaships” that carry 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), boosting the firm’s capacity, the shipper said yesterday.
The addition of 33 new vessels that can carry a combined 260,000 TEUs would raise Evergreen’s capacity by 18 percent year-on-year, Evergreen Marine president Eric Hsieh (謝惠全) told an annual shareholders’ meeting in Taipei.
The 17 new vessels include four “megaships,” each with capacity of 24,000 TEUs, to be used on European routes, replacing smaller vessels with a capacity of 14,000 TEUs, Hsieh said.
Photo courtesy of Evergreen Marine Corp
Hsieh, who had announced the change in April, yesterday reiterated that using larger vessels on European routes would improve Evergreen Marine’s efficiency and competitiveness.
“The ocean cargo rates for European routes are at a higher level than those for US routes, but higher freight rates do not guarantee higher profit margin, as operational costs also matter. Using the ‘megaships’ would reduce cost per unit,” Hsieh said.
The company expects revenue from its European operations to continue growing. Revenue from the European market made up 35 percent of total revenue in the first six months of the year, equal to that from the US market.
The company plans to allocate new vessels with a capacity of 12,000 TEUs to its US routes and the smaller ships with capacity of 1,800 to 2,500 TEUs to its Asian routes, it said.
Evergreen Marine also plans to add another 42 new vessels with a combined capacity of 550,000 TEUs from next year to 2025, which would help the company enlarge its market share, the firm said.
As of July 2, Evergreen’s capacity totaled 1.36 million TEUs, which ranked seventh among global shippers and translated into a market share of 5.5 percent, company data showed.
The shipper has an upbeat outlook for the second half of this year, as a recovering global economy and ongoing congestion at major sea ports would continue to raise rates.
Evergreen Marine’s revenue surged 117 percent year-on-year to NT$189.86 billion (US$6.76 billion) in the first six months of the year, company data showed.
The company’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.5 per share was approved at the shareholders’ meeting.
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