Evergreen continues to spend money to buy more containers

Container ship Evergreen (Evergreen)

In January, Evergreen's general manager, Eric Hsieh, revealed plans to order an additional 40,000 containers – after spending $51.53 million on 9,800 new dry containers and 6,171 used containers since Evergreen's subsidiary in Singapore in 2022. Last year, Evergreen also spent $65.24 million to purchase 7,800 refrigerated containers from Dong Fang International Containers.

Evergreen also bought an office in Singapore for $32 million to run its own agency in the Southeast Asian country, as the group expects to take delivery of 51 ships in the next two years.

Hsieh is optimistic about the rate hike just before the Lunar New Year holiday, saying Evergreen's vessels on the Trans-Pacific service are already full and the carriers have been trying to apply a general rate increase (GRI) of 1,000- $2,000 per FEU for that month.

Hsieh has admitted there have been longstanding concerns about overcapacity. Alphaliner has forecast container shipping supplies to grow by around 8% in 2023, with demand growing by just 2.7%. “We are not worried about the recent adjustment in container freight rates and we are sticking to our expansion plans to increase our competitiveness,” he said.

However, Hsieh argues that stricter environmental regulations, such as requiring shipowners and operators to begin meeting the Carbon Intensity Index (CII) requirements, could eliminate around 10% capacity off the market. The excess capacity therefore "may not be as severe as imagined".

Source: Phaata.com (According to Container News)

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