Acording to Container-news.com, Evergreen Marine Corporation is ordering 11,500 X 20-foot containers from China International Marine Containers (CIMC) for US$37.13 million.

Evergreen itself has a container manufacturing subsidiary, Evergreen Heavy Industrial Corp. (Malaysia), which makes containers for the Taiwanese group and third-party customers. Evergreen Heavy Industrial Corp. occupies a site in Johor port and was opened in September 1990.

An Evergreen spokesperson told Container News that the liner operator regularly places orders with its container manufacturing subsidiary in Johor in order to meet the local demand in Malaysia.

The spokesperson said, “We place orders with China-based factories as and when to meet demand in China, which is currently increasing.”

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Evergreen is renewing its fleet with larger fuel-efficient newbuildings and since the start of 2020, has taken delivery of three 1,900 TEU ships and one 12,000 TEU ship. Another 44 newbuildings are scheduled for delivery from April 2020 to July 2022.

The Evergreen spokesperson continued, “Evergreen orders new containers not only to equip our growing vessel fleet and meet business demand, but also to replace our old containers. We dispose of our older containers through the second-hand market.  We strive to maintain our container equipment at the highest standard in order to provide the best service to our customers.”

CIMC, a Chinese state-owned enterprise that is the world’s largest container manufacturer, is expecting net profit of CNY1.3 billion (US$186.03 million) to CNY1.8 billion (US$257.59 million) for 2019, significantly down from net profit of CNY3.38 billion (US$491.41 million) in 2018. This was due to weak demand for CIMC’s marine and offshore engineering services, as well as reduced container sales.