Evergreen has ordered 24 container vessels with individual capacities of 16,000 TEU, the Taiwanese carriers confirms in an announcement Tuesday, according to ShippingWatch.
All vessels are fitted with dual-fuel technology, ready to sail on methanol. The unit price of the vessels is between USD 180m and USD 210m.
16 of the vessels will be built at Samsung Heavy Industries, according to a statement to the Taipei Stock Exchange. These will have a total price between USD 2.8bn and 3.3bn.
The remaining eight vessel will be constructed at Nihon Shipyard Co at a total price of USD 1.4-1.7bn.
The combined Evergreen group currently commands a fleet of 127 container vessels with a total capacity of 953,786 teu plus another 88 vessels on charter.
With the announcement, Evergreen confirms what was stated in the beginning of May by Maersk Broker: The box carrier planned on expanding its fleet with 24 new methanol-fueled vessels.
According to Maersk Broker, the major order would likely be distributed among several shipyards, and the brokerage firm considered the large South Korean yards as frontrunners in the race.