Taiwan's Evergreen Buys 10 Vessels from CSBC

Taiwan's Evergreen Group will order 10 ships from the island's leading shipyard, China Shipbuilding Corporation (CSBC) for 1.03 billion US dollars, as part of a plan to more than double its container fleet.

They expect to obtain the order before the end of this month.

If finalized, the contract would require construction of 10 8,000 TEU (Twenty-foot equivalent unit) container vessels at a total price of 102.78 USD with the first ships due for delivery in 2014.

This report comes after Evergreen Marine, the world's fourth largest shipping firm, ordered 10 ships from Samsung Heavy Industries of South Korea for 1.03 billion US dollars early this month.

Evergreen Marine has plans to spend more than five billion US dollars to boost by 100 its current fleet of 81. The 100 ships may cost up to 170 billion Taiwan dollars (5.3 billion US dollars).

In addition to its 81 container ships, Evergreen charters another 69.