Evergreen may order about 100 container ships

As world trade rebounds from the global recession

Evergreen Marine Corp., the only major container line without any vessels on order, will begin talks next month on buying about 100 ships as world trade rebounds from the global recession.

The shipping line intends to order 32 vessels able to hold as many as 8,000 standard 20-foot boxes each, as well as smaller ships, Katherine Ko, a public relations officer, said by phone from Taipei today. The ships will predominately replace existing vessels, she said.

Evergreen, Asia’s second-largest container line, last took delivery of a vessel in 2008 as it slowed expansion plans amid a glut in global capacity that contributed to ship prices falling as much as 40 percent last year. The company is considering orders as the economic revival spurs demand for Asian-made furniture, electronics and clothes in the U.S. and Europe.

“Evergreen is ordering at a good time as ship prices have fallen quite a bit,” said Lee Sokje, a Mirae Asset Securities Co. analyst in Seoul. “Still, having no ships on order means Evergreen hasn’t invested in future growth, so it could lose out to competitors as it awaits delivery slots.”

Evergreen will hold talks with shipyards in South Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan, Ko said. The company and affiliates operate 150 vessels, she said. Delivery dates for the new ships are yet to be decided, she said.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, parent of the world’s largest container line, has 64 vessels on order, according to data from AXS-Alphaliner. Evergreen is the only shipping line among the world’s 20 biggest by capacity without any backlog.

The biggest vessel Evergreen owns can carry a little more than 7,000 containers, according to the shipping line’s Web site. Maersk has eight ships able to carry 13,500 boxes each, according to Clarkson Plc.

A new vessel able to carry 3,500 20-foot containers was worth $38 million as of April 9, 37 percent less than at the end of 2008, according to London-based Clarkson, the world’s largest shipbroker.

Source: Bloomberg