Evergreen Marine Corporation , is a Taiwanese container transportation and shipping company headquartered in Luzhu District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan. Its principal trading routes are the Far East to North America, Central America and the Caribbean; the Far east to northern Europe and the east Mediterranean; Europe to the east coast of North America; the Far East to Australia, Mauritius, South Africa and South America; and an intra Asia service linking ports in Asia to the Middle East, Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. With over 150 container ships it is part of the Evergreen Group conglomerate of transportation firms and associated companies. Evergreen calls on 240 ports worldwide in about 80 countries, and is the fifth largest company of its type. The company's activities include: shipping, construction of containers and ships, management of ports, and engineering and real estate development. Subsidiaries and divisions include Uniglory Marine Corp., Evergreen UK Ltd., and shipping company Italia Marittima S.p.A.. In 2007, Hatsu, Italia Maritima, and Evergreen were merged into the single "Evergreen Line." The majority of Evergreen's shipping containers are painted green with the word "Evergreen" placed on the sides in white letters. Uniglory containers are similarly painted and marked, but those containers are bright orange. Evergreen's refrigerated "reefer" containers have a reverse color scheme.
History
The company was founded 1 September 1968 by Yung-Fa Chang. Services began with a single cargo vessel named Central Trust, which operated a "go-anywhere" service. A second vessel was added in 1969, and used on Middle East services. Additional vessels were acquired through the 1970s, and routes to East Asia and Central America were added. Service to the U.S. began in 1974, with the establishment of Evergreen Marine Corporation Ltd. In 1981, the parent company changed its name to Evergreen International S.A., as the company increased its global expansion efforts. Evergreen Marine began its first circumnavigation shipping services in 1984. This service is bi-directional, covering both westbound and eastbound routings. Since then, Evergreen Marine has expanded to include other shipping companies such as the Uniglory Marine Corp. in 1984, the Hatsu Marine Ltd. in 2002, and the Italian shipping company Italia Marittima in 1993. Uniglory was made a division of the company in 1999. Evergreen Marine has also become a partner of EVA Airways, founded in 1989, and Uni Air, founded in 1998. In 2002, Evergreen Marine operated 61 container vessels, with a total fleet size totaling 130 vessels with 400,000 TEU. By 2008, Evergreen Marine operated 178 container vessels. In 2009, the company announced plans to build 100 additional vessels, in anticipation of a global economic recovery by 2012.
Operations
Evergreen Marine's operations primarily center around five general routings:
The shipping line's busiest routings are in the first category, East Asia to North America and Central America. Within this area, common traffic is between China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan with the U.S. West Coast, along with routings to the East Caribbean via Panama.
Fleet
Evergreen Marine operated 153 container ships with on 1 May 2005. In total, Evergreen Marine operated 178 container ships in 2008.
Containership classes
The following are Evergreen containership classes since 1975:
