Taipei-based Evergreen Marine Corp. will expand its fleet after deciding to order 10 container ships from a South Korean shipbuilder June 1.
The decision was reached after Evergreen received the latest quotes for the ships, and Chairman Chang Yung-fa gave his personal approval to placing the order.
In April, Evergreen announced plans to order 100 new container ships with a price tag totaling NT$180 billion (US$5.6 billion). The first ships should be ready by the end of 2013.
Evergreen Group in April announced plans to order 100 new container ships with a price tag totaling NT$180 billion (US$5.6 billion).
Evergreen intends to place orders for 32 new ships this year, Chang said. Besides the 10 South Korean-built ships, Evergreen is also planning to place orders for 12 more vessels, also having an 8,000-TEU capacity, with CSBC Corp., Taiwan’s biggest shipbuilding company. The two sides are still in final negotiations over prices, however. The remaining ships will be allotted to either a Japanese or a South Korean shipbuilder.
“We are insisting that these ships must incorporate the latest green technology, and that they cannot cost more than US$10,000 per TEU,” he said.
Evergreen Group is a Taiwan-based conglomerate that includes Evergreen Marine Corp., a shipping company, EVA Airways Corp., an airline, and Evergreen International Corp., a hotel chain.
During his interview, Chang noted that EVA Airways expects to receive three new Boeing 777-300 planes in the second half of this year, to be used for flights to the United States, Europe and Japan.
“Both Evergreen Shipping and EVA Airways will make money this year,” Chang said with a chuckle. In the first quarter of 2010, he noted, Eva Airways made a profit of NT$1.2 billion. As to the shipping company, it “should do fine” in the third quarter, though Chang said he is “still not sure” how well it will do in the fourth.
Evergreen International is on an aggressive expansion plan, Chang noted. In addition to a new hotel to be opened in Taiwan in mid-June, an NT$2.5-billion flagship hotel is also being built in Shanghai. New hotels in the mainland Chinese cities of Chongqing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Beijing and Hangzhou are also in the pipeline.
An existing hotel belonging to the group in Bangkok will also be torn down, to be replaced by a 25-story luxury hotel, the chairman added.
Asked what he thought of the global economic outlook, Chang said he has always maintained that the economy will not completely recover until 2012. Those who believe it has already recovered are mistaken, he said.
The recovery will be W-shaped, he said. “That’s why we’re placing our orders now, when prices are at their lowest,” Chang said. (HZW)