THE EVERGREEN Group will boost capacity on the Far East - South Africa - South America route when it transfers overall responsibility for the service from Uniglory Marine Corporation to Evergreen Marine Corporation (EMC).
The current fleet of mainly 1150 teu vessels will shortly be replaced by three 1200 teu newbuilds, three 1850 teu ships which will be redeployed from other trades and five 1400 to 1500 teu chartered vessels.
The move is in line with company policy which sees Evergreen concentrating on long-haul routes and Uniglory focusing on expanded feeder operations in Asia.
Uniglory launched its Far East - SA service in March 1993 and extended the schedule to include South America 12 months later. To page 16 From page 1 During this year, Evergreen started contributing ships to the service, and by the beginning of next year will have become the major contributor of tonnage.
Evergreen will maintain all agency arrangements with Green Africa Shipping continuing its role unchanged. Owner's representative, Alan Chen, will be based at Green Africa's Johannesburg head office from mid-December.
Uniglory will end its involvement with the sailing of the 1378 teu Petralia from Keelung on December 31, 1996. The operation of the weekly service will become Evergreen's responsibility with the sailing of the 1810 teu Ever Living from Keelung on January 6, 1997.
Matters such as vessels to be deployed and service rotation are currently being reviewed and any changes will be confirmed before the year end, Green Africa's Anton de Marillac told FTW.
The line would not be drawn on details of its rumoured entry into the SA - Europe market next year. Massive expansion plans worldwide are however in the pipeline with several newbuilds on order.
