THERE IS a major increase in commitment to the Far East-SA-South America trade by the giant Taiwanese sea carrier, Evergreen.
Four new vessels have just been deployed on the route - the first of the G Class ships of 2728 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) capacity.
Of these, the first two - the Ever Guide and the Ever Giant - have already arrived at Durban, with the other two (Ever Going and Ever Gather) to follow.
In this fleet changeover, the line is phasing out the L Type vessels (1 800TEU) on the run to accommodate the larger ships. This will leave it with four, 1 200TEU A Class vessels and four charters of 1 600TEU (supplying the own-geared, fully-cellular capacity to the fleet) to supplement the four newcomers.
The frequency will remain at weekly sailings.
Meantime, Evergreen has just seen the launch of the first two of its D Class (4 173TEU) Panamax containerships - for service on the round-the-world westbound (RWW) schedule - by the Japanese shipbuilders Mitsubishi. The Ever Decent and the Ever Dainty are the first of a fleet of ten of these ships, due to be in service by the end of 1998. Following completion of the D-type series, Mitsubishi will be building eight 5 364TEU, U-type containerships for the Evergreen Group - all of which are due to be in service by the end of 1999.
With these, and the other new vessels being added to the group's Evergreen and Uniglory lines, the group fleet is expected to exceed 300000 TEU-capacity by the end of this century.
