Asia/Pacific News
Evergreen to Replace Older, Less Fuel Efficient Vessels
Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp. (Evergreen) will charter seven new vessels while gradually retiring older and smaller vessels that are less fuel efficient, the Taipei Times reports.
The 14,000 twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) vessels are owned by Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corp. and will be delivered in 2016 and 2017 on 10-year charters.
"The decision fits into the company's fleet replacement plan," Evergreen said.
The company has already agreed to charter 10 container ships of 13,800 TEU from Enesel SA of Greece and has taken delivery of two of the vessels so far.
Evergreen is improving the fuel efficiency of its fleet by eliminating some smaller self-owned ships or not extending contracts for some chartered vessels.
The company said in June that it planned to receive about 40 new fuel-efficient vessels, most of them around 8,000 TEU, over the next three to four years to help reduce its costs.
