Evergreen's 35-strong newbuilding programme shifts up a gear

THE 8,452-TEU Ever Leader newbuilding has been delivered to Evergreen from shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries, the eighth ship in its 35-ship strong L-class newbuilding programme.

These ships are the first batch to be received by the shipping line in four years and kick off a 45-ship newbuilding programme that will add 435,000 TEU to its fleet within three years. In November, the carrier took delivery of sister the Ever Lawful.

The Ever Leader is being deployed on the Asia-Europe CES2/AEX 2 service operated jointly by Evergreen, CSCL and Zim, with Cosco, "K" Line and Hanjin Shipping taking slots.