The Economic Daily News reports that Evergreen plans to build 10 9,000-9,200 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) container ships, instead of 8,000 TEUs as originally planned, while Yang Ming is in talk with shipbuilder for building 13,000 TEUs container ships.
The plans are in compliance with the growing prevalence of large-scale ships in the global shipping market, as ship owners hope to build such ships for plying regular ocean-going shipping routes, so as to cut unit cost. Maersk Line, the world`s largest shipper, for instance, placed an order for 18,000 TEUs container ships with Daewoo recently, a move which caused quite a stir on the market. The trend has also been fueled by constantly rising oil prices.