TAIWAN's global shipping giant Evergreen Marine Corp announced that it's to build 20 new 15,000 TEU container ships, the company announced recently and reported by Rotterdam's World Maritime News.

The announcement confirms broker rumours from February this year.

Evergreen Marine's board of directors recently approved the construction of 20 new 15,000 TEU ships due to a rise in global demand.

When the company was approached for a comment by our editorial staff at the time, Evergreen issued the following statement: "Evergreen continually studies various types of vessels and will place order or charter most suitable vessels depending on market requirement. Evergreen is continuing with fleet renewal programme for the purpose of optimising service quality and competitiveness."

The Taiwanese shipowner plans to assign between US$115 and $130 million per vessel, pushing the total value of the deal up to $2.6 billion.

Several major shipyards are in the race to carry out the job, including Chinese shipbuilders Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) and Jiangnan Shipyard (Group), Japanese builder Imabari Shipbuilding, as well as Korean majors Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries.

According to Lars Jensen, CEO and Partner of Sea Intelligence Consulting, Evergreen's orderbook now accounts for some 750,000 TEU and more than 50 per cent of their current fleet.

The company has ten 24,000 TEU A-type containerships on order, with four estimated for delivery in 2021 and the remainder in 2022. China's Jiangnan Shipyard and Hudong Zhonghua are building two each and there are six on order from South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries. The vessels will be a mix of Evergreen owned and chartered in.

As reported earlier, talks have been launched with an unnamed counterparty to sell and leaseback two 24,000 TEU containerships.