Taiwan, China's shipping giant Evergreen Marine is accelerating its fleet expansion and asset upgrade, placing orders for 14 dual-fuel container vessels at Chinese and Korean shipyards with a total investment of RMB 20 billion. Simultaneously, it is increasing investments in containers and terminal handling equipment to comprehensively enhance shipping capacity and shore-side resource allocation.

On November 12, Evergreen Marine announced that, through its subsidiary Evergreen Marine (Asia), it has placed an order for 14 dual-fuel LNG-powered container vessels, each with a capacity of 14,000 TEU. The order will be split equally, with Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) and South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries each building 7 vessels. The cost per vessel is approximately $175-205 million, bringing the total order value to about $2.45-2.87 billion (roughly RMB 17.426-20.414 billion).

For reference, Clarksons' data indicates that the current newbuilding price for a 13,000/14,000 TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered container vessel is approximately $176 million, down from the peak of $185 million earlier this year.

Evergreen Marine did not disclose the delivery dates for the new vessels. Industry sources suggest that these vessels are expected to be delivered between 2028 and the end of 2029.

This marks Evergreen Marine's second new vessel order this year. Earlier this year, the company ordered 11 of the world's largest 24,000 TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered container vessels from two Chinese and Korean shipyards: five from Guangzhou Shipyard International and six from Hanwha Ocean. The unit price for these vessels was approximately $265-295 million, with delivery scheduled for 2027 to 2028.

Evergreen Marine's order represents Guangzhou Shipyard International's first foray into the ultra-large container vessel market exceeding 20,000 TEU. It also marks the first collaboration between Evergreen Marine and Guangzhou Shipyard International. With the latest order for 14,000 TEU dual-fuel vessels, the two parties will further deepen their cooperative relationship.

Evergreen Marine is the largest shipping company in the Taiwan region. In recent years, Evergreen Marine has continued to invest in new vessel orders to expand its fleet. Unlike peers Yang Ming Marine Transport and Wan Hai Lines, which primarily place orders with Japanese and Korean shipyards, Evergreen Marine's orders are widely shared among Chinese, Japanese, and Korean shipbuilders. According to Clarksons' data, Evergreen Marine currently has a total of 44 new vessels under construction for its owned fleet. These include nine feeder ships from Huangpu Wenchong, five 24,000 TEU ultra-large vessels from Guangzhou Shipyard International, 16 16,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel vessels from Samsung Heavy Industries in Korea, six 24,000 TEU vessels from Hanwha Ocean, and eight 16,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel vessels from Japan's Imabari Shipbuilding.

In 2018, Evergreen Marine placed its first order for new vessels with a mainland Chinese shipyard, signing a contract with Jiangnan Shipyard for four 2,500 TEU feeder container ships. Subsequently, in 2019, Jiangnan Shipyard, Hudong-Zhonghua, and Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries shared a major order from Evergreen Marine for ten 24,000 TEU-class A-type container vessels. Specifically, Jiangnan Shipyard secured two vessels, Hudong-Zhonghua secured two, and Samsung Heavy Industries secured six. In 2021, Evergreen Marine placed an additional order with Hudong-Zhonghua for three 24,004 TEU container vessels.

Furthermore, Evergreen Marine is collaborating with Huangpu Wenchong on the construction of feeder container vessels. Clarksons' data indicates that Evergreen Marine has cumulatively ordered up to 30 feeder vessels from Huangpu Wenchong. These include eleven 3,110 TEU vessels, eleven 2,300 TEU vessels, six 2,400 TEU vessels, and two 1,904 TEU vessels. Of these, 21 have already been delivered, and nine remain under construction. 

With the continuous addition of new vessels, Evergreen Marine's demand for containers has also been rising. Similarly, on November 12, Evergreen Marine, through its subsidiary Evergreen Marine (Asia), signed four container construction agreements, purchasing over 90,000 containers for a total amount of approximately $220 million (about RMB 1.565 billion).

Among these, a subsidiary of Evergreen Marine reached an agreement with Oriental International Container (Hong Kong) to construct 26,300 containers, with a total transaction value of $49.8225 million. It also signed a contract with China International Marine Containers for 20,000 containers, totaling $43.07 million. A deal with Singamas Container Holdings secured 13,000 containers for $34.24 million, and an agreement with Guangdong Fuwa Machinery for 31,100 containers amounted to $92.5895 million.

At the same time, Evergreen Marine, acting on behalf of its subsidiary Colón Container Terminal in Panama, announced the purchase of eight quay cranes and nine rubber-tired gantry cranes from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) due to operational needs. The total price for this equipment is $106 million (approximately RMB 754 million).

It is understood that Evergreen Marine is currently the world's seventh-largest container shipping company. The latest data from Alphaliner shows that Evergreen Marine's current fleet size is 236 vessels with a capacity of 1.94 million TEU, including 159 owned vessels and 77 chartered vessels, representing a market share of 5.8%. Additionally, Evergreen Marine has 56 new vessels under construction, totaling 860,000 TEU, which accounts for 44.2% of its current fleet capacity. Based on the existing fleet, once all new vessels are delivered, Evergreen Marine's fleet capacity will surpass that of Japan's Ocean Network Express (ONE), ranking sixth globally.

In the first three quarters of this year, Evergreen Marine achieved cumulative revenue of TWD 293.38 billion (approximately RMB 67.114 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 15.6%. Gross profit was TWD 77.34 billion (approximately RMB 17.692 billion), operating profit was TWD 65.8 billion (approximately RMB 15.052 billion), pre-tax profit was TWD 72.32 billion (approximately RMB 16.544 billion), and net profit for the first three quarters was TWD 61.27 billion (approximately RMB 14.016 billion). Net profit attributable to the parent company was TWD 60.06 billion (approximately RMB 13.739 billion).