Taipei: Veteran container player Dr Chang Yung-fa has come out and blasted his rivals for laying on too much extra new capacity during the ongoing fragile period for the sector. The founder and chairman of Evergreen has long warned on the perils of overordering super large tonnage ships, he held back from ordering from 2003 to 2010. In 2010, Evergreen embarked on a fleet renewal programme, ordering thirty 8,000 teu ships as well as chartering in five 8,800 teu vessels and ten 13,800 teu ones.
In total, 24 of the 45 new ships have been delivered during 2012 and 2013. The fleet will receive another 18 newbuildings in 2014 and the remaining three ships in 2015.
As this is a fleet renewal program, Evergreen is keen to stress, the delivery of the new vessels will be balanced by a gradual return of 54 chartered vessels to their owners as the term of the charters expire.
According to statistics compiled by industry analyst Alphaliner, the compound annual growth rate of the global containership fleet over the past five years is 7.07%. The ratio of Evergreen Line's capacity growth over the same period is 5.56%; lower than the market average.
Even when taking account of the ongoing delivery of newbuildings, it should be emphasized that Evergreen's fleet capacity at the end of 2013 will account for just 4.8% of the global total and 5% only at the end of 2015. Both levels are still below Evergreen's share of capacity in December 2008, when it stood at 5.2%.
“It is evident from these figures that Evergreen's fleet renewal program will have no significant negative impact on the global supply/demand balance,” Evergreen said in a release to the media. [26/11/13]
