Evergreen to charter ten 13,800-TEU newbuildings from Greek shipmanager

TAIWAN's Evergreen Marine has dispensed with its usual disdain for megaships to charter ten 13,800-TEUers from Greek ship management company Enesel which ordered the ships from South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries.

Enesel ordered the vessels for US$1.2 billion, which will be leased to Evergreen for an initial five years with deliveries expected later next year.

The Evergreen ships are cheaper, $120 million each compared to other same size ships going at $170 million. They are also more fuel efficient, according to the parties involved.

Mostly a tanker and bulk operator, Enesel has four 9,814-TEU containerships on order at Hyundai, which are to be chartered to Hamburg Sud for 10 years after delivery in 2014.