Evergreen Marine Corporation is going for another round of capital investments as the Taiwanese liner operator looks to bolster its competitiveness amid healthy earnings for the liner industry.
Evergreen said on 27 December that it will spend US$47.29 million on 9,500 new containers, which will be ordered from its Malaysian container factory, Evergreen Heavy Industrial Corp. (Malaysia). Delivery of these containers is expected in the first half of 2022, while this year, 420,000 TEU of new containers have joined Evergreen’s fleet.
Everport Terminal Services, Evergreen’s joint venture with Ports America, which operates terminals in the US West Coast, will also lease two more bridge cranes from Evergreen’s subsidiary, Evergreen Shipping Agency (America) Corporation, to boost efficiency in its Los Angeles terminal.
The cranes will supplement the existing four bridge cranes which Everport Terminal Services had been leasing from the same Evergreen subsidiary. The lease for the latter four cranes was also renewed on 27 December, and the total lease amount for the six cranes will come up to US$22.27 million.
Evergreen’s general manager, Eric Hsieh said that more cranes are needed to expedite container processing, especially when ships have become larger.
He noted that congestion in the US West Coast ports is still the biggest problem affecting container logistics and that Los Angeles Port executive director, Gene Seroka, had said in media interviews that the supply chain chaos may last at least until the end of 2022.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
