Evergreen Expands Fleet with $3B Order for 24,000 TEU Behemoths

By Alison Koo (The Loadstar) –

Evergreen is to spend more than $3bn on another series of 24,000 teu ultra-large containerships.

The Taiwanese mainline operator says it had commissioned 11 ships, priced between $265m and $295m each; six to be built by South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean and five at Guangzhou Shipyard International in China.

Evergreen’s orderbook is now at 821,423 teu, the fifth-largest, behind MSC, CMA CGM, Cosco, and Maersk, and equates to 46% of its active fleet.

The newbuilds will join a dozen 24,000 teu ships already in the Evergreen fleet and, while no delivery dates were confirmed, Alphaliner believes they won’t begin before 2028, as the major shipyards are mostly fully booked for the next two years.

Evergreen already operates 23 conventionally powered ‘megamax’ vessels, with one more due next year, so, suggests Alphaliner, the latest newbuildings are likely to be LNG dual-fuelled.

Although the carrier has 16 methanol dual-fuelled 16,000 teu vessels on order from at Samsung Heavy Industries, there is talk that the company is considering following Maersk by switching propulsion to LNG.

Another carrier with a seemingly insatiable appetite for new ships is CMA CGM. Not long after commissioning a dozen 15,500 teu LNG dual-fuelled ships at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, the French carrier is reportedly planning an order for as many as 24 LNG dual-fuel 18,000 teu ships from one of China State Shipbuilding’s yards.

CMA CGM’s policy is only to disclose details of newbuilding orders during quarterly updates. Its orderbook is currently 1.34m teu.

On the non-operating owners’ side, Danaos has disclosed that, in Q4 24, it ordered two 9,200 teu ships from CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding. The price was not disclosed, but would be around $127m. The Greek shipowner’s orderbook is now for 16 ships, for 134,234 teu.

Also, UK shipbroker Clarksons reported that last week, Danish shipping fund Navigare Capital, backed by Robert Maersk Uggla and Danish bulk carrier owner J Lauritzen, had ordered four 4,300 teu ships from China’s Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering, with options for two more. Deliveries are expected between 2027 and 2028. VesselsValue.com estimates a construction price of $76m each.

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