Evergreen Line plans to withdraw 31 of its oldest ships from service and scrap many of them to help chip away at what its chairman, Chang Yung-fa, described as a “gruesome” excess of vessel capacity in the container ship industry.
The ships are 20 G-Class vessels, with capacities of 2,728 TEUs, and 11 GX-class ships, with capacities of 3,428 TEUs. The vessels were built from 1983 to 1988 for use in the round-the-world services that vaulted the Taiwanese line into the top ranks of the world’s container carriers.
An Evergreen representative said the G-class and GX-class ships that the carrier owns will be scrapped, and that the chartered vessels among the group will be redelivered to their owners when current charters expire.
Evergreen’s plans were first reported by Taiwan’s Kainji Press, which quoted Chang as saying the carrier is scrapping vessels and holding off on new orders because of a surplus in global container ship capacity that has contributed to low rates.
“The reckless ordering of newbuildings and the slump in the global trade have combined to send the world’s liner operators into a tailspin,” Chang was quoted as saying. “In order to rectify the gruesome situation even by a little, Evergreen will implement a program of scrapping a large number of vessels beginning this year.”
Evergreen owns or charters more than 150 ships. The carrier steered clear of ordering the super-size container ships that have flooded the market in recent years. Evergreen’s last new ships, 10 vessels with 7,024-TEU capacity, were delivered in October 2007.
Evergreen had planned to order new vessels three years ago, but it canceled the plans after it couldn’t come to terms with shipbuilders. “When we look back upon that time, I think we were farsighted,” Chang was quoted as saying. “If we had pushed forward with the plan as it stood, we would now find ourselves in a most difficult and impossible situation. Thanks to our decision at that time, we have no containership in our fleet that costs more than $10,000 per TEU.”
Chang was quoted as saying the surge in orders of the new, bigger ships “was a stupid act” that contributed to a plunge in rates because the new vessels were delivered just as the global economy weakened.
The ships are 20 G-Class vessels, with capacities of 2,728 TEUs, and 11 GX-class ships, with capacities of 3,428 TEUs. The vessels were built from 1983 to 1988 for use in the round-the-world services that vaulted the Taiwanese line into the top ranks of the world’s container carriers.
An Evergreen representative said the G-class and GX-class ships that the carrier owns will be scrapped, and that the chartered vessels among the group will be redelivered to their owners when current charters expire.
Evergreen’s plans were first reported by Taiwan’s Kainji Press, which quoted Chang as saying the carrier is scrapping vessels and holding off on new orders because of a surplus in global container ship capacity that has contributed to low rates.
“The reckless ordering of newbuildings and the slump in the global trade have combined to send the world’s liner operators into a tailspin,” Chang was quoted as saying. “In order to rectify the gruesome situation even by a little, Evergreen will implement a program of scrapping a large number of vessels beginning this year.”
Evergreen owns or charters more than 150 ships. The carrier steered clear of ordering the super-size container ships that have flooded the market in recent years. Evergreen’s last new ships, 10 vessels with 7,024-TEU capacity, were delivered in October 2007.
Evergreen had planned to order new vessels three years ago, but it canceled the plans after it couldn’t come to terms with shipbuilders. “When we look back upon that time, I think we were farsighted,” Chang was quoted as saying. “If we had pushed forward with the plan as it stood, we would now find ourselves in a most difficult and impossible situation. Thanks to our decision at that time, we have no containership in our fleet that costs more than $10,000 per TEU.”
Chang was quoted as saying the surge in orders of the new, bigger ships “was a stupid act” that contributed to a plunge in rates because the new vessels were delivered just as the global economy weakened.