I was totally shocked by Friday’s big news: Evergreen has reached a ground breaking agreement with Greek owner Enesel to charter its ten newbuilding 13800 TEU container vessels in Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industry for 5 year plus further option after delivery from September 2013.

First of all, I don’t see any good in the container market, the freight rate has been doomed for quite a long time, and major players are all suffering. In their Q1 report, Maersk Line reported a 9 percent decline in freight rates along with a 31 percent increase in bunker rates. This accumulated to a one billion US dollars year on year profit loss. Singapore-based NOL Group recorded similar data with 250 million US dollars negative change in first quarter 2012.

On the other hand, these vessels will be Evergreen’s 13800 TEU mega box ships debut in their fleet. The Taiwanese owner has denied this kind of big vessel for many times. But considering these ten’s high fuel efficiency, even a 10% saver than current same class vessel, and giving their great capacity for long haul voyages like China-Europe trade, it seems there’s no more excuse to say no this time. It is also the very first time for Enesel to embrace such a deal, after its reentry of the container market last year with four 9800 TEU containers order for Germany operator Süd of a ten years charter also in Hyundai Heavy Industry scheduled for delivery from early 2014. How the team chemistry will produce for the 2 green hands shall be an interesting story to follow up.

These ten 1.2 billion US dollar vessels are contracted as Panama flag and GL class. And this deal was trusted to be finalized by Enesel’s chartering agent Lemos NS in London with their Taiwan counterpart.