In a bid to protect its position in the Far East-Europe trades, Evergreen is joining forces with four other major Asian lines.
The Taiwanese carrier, which has been losing ground as competitors have teamed up with other lines and ordered bigger ships, is preparing to co-operate with the CKYH alliance of Cosco Container Line, K Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin Shipping.
However, Evergreen will not become a full-fledged member of the CKYH group, otherwise known as the Green Alliance.
“All parties intend to enhance highest frequency of service loops, expedition of delivery terms and full scale of port coverage in their services and agreed to strengthen co-operation among one another in Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean trade lanes from the second quarter of 2012,” the five lines said in a statement.
“Although Evergreen will not be joining CKYH, the carriers will co-ordinate with each other to provide more intensive sailings to the level of eight service loops from Asian ports to northern European base ports, and four service loops from Asian ports to Mediterranean ports every week.”
The statement went on to say that the majority of the ships operated in these total twelve loops will range from 8,000 teu to 13,000 teu size.
“Through this co-operation, CKYH, together with Evergreen,will be able to provide the highest quality services to their customers with shortest transit time from major origin ports to European destinations.”
The CKYH alliance is already a powerful consortium, with analyst Alphaliner estimating its share of the Asia-North Europe trades at 14%, a figure that is expected to rise to 16% by the later half of 2012. In the Asia-Mediterranean trades, the CKYH alliance has a market share of 15%.
With MSC and CMA CGM announcing a partnership and the Grand and New World alliances planning to work together, Evergreen was in danger of being sidelined,
The former number one line in the world has always preferred to operate independently, or only form looseknit space exchange agreements with other carriers. However, according to a report in IFW’s sister publication, Lloyd’s List, industry experts have been openly warning that Evergreen risked being forced off the trade unless it took urgent action to protect its position.
But to compound its problems, Evergreen is virtually the only major container line not to have ordered ships of 12,000teu or more. However, despite resistance to anything larger than 8,000teu by group chairman Chang Yung-fa, senior executives are thought to be talking to shipyards about vessels that would be competitive in the Asia-Europe trades where 14,000teu ships look set to become the new workhorses.
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