Video: Evergreen’s Second 24,000-plus TEU Boxship Floated Out
The second in a new class of ultra-large containerships was floated out from the drydock yesterday at CSSC’s Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard. Being built as part of Evergreen Line’s large newbuilding program, it is the second vessel was a capacity of more than 24,000 TEU built by the Chinese yard for the Taiwanese shipping company and is being celebrated as the Shanghai based-shipyard returns to work after a month-long shutdown due to China’s COVID-19 policies.
The new vessel named Ever Aria was floated out on May 19 and in the background you can see her sister ship Ever Alot which was floated at the end of 2021 and is completing fitting out. Hudong-Zhonghua is building a total of six ULCVs, based on an independently developed design that permitted the ships while the same dimension as Evergreen’s other ULCVs to increase their rated container capacity. Evergreen’s South Korean-built A Class ships have a capacity of 23,992 TEU while the Chinese ones are reporting a slightly larger rating at 24,004 TEU.
Like the other vessels of the A Class, the new Ever Alot and Ever Aria will measure 1,312 feet in length with a 202-foot beam. The total height will be 109 feet. The South Korean-built Ever Ace is 241,960 dwt and the new Chinese-built vessels are expected to have a similar tonnage. To give a sense of the mammoth size of the vessels, the shipyard says that the cargo hold has a depth of approximately 109 feet and a deck area of more than 250,000 square feet, making the A Class vessels nearly 200 feet longer than the world's largest aircraft carrier. They report the vessels can carry 240,000 tons of cargo.
Hudong-Zhonghua is highlighting several elements that they incorporated into the design. The vessels feature a uniquely shaped bow (visible in the video), a large diameter propeller, and energy-saving ducts that are said to reduce fuel consumption and improve operating efficiency versus the other ULCVs. They are also being outfitted with a hybrid scrubber desulfurization device and the latest global technology design for green energy saving.
These vessels are part of the industry’s second largest newbuilding program. According to calculations from Alpaliner, Evergreen currently has more than 60 boxships on order representing over 6000,000 TEU in capacity. That equals nearly 40 percent of the line’s current capacity making it second to MSC in both the number of ships and TEU capacity. In addition to the newbuilds, the company is also rebuilding existing ships. Container News reports that nine of the line’s 8,500 TEU boxships are slated to add two rows for stacking containers through a reconstruction involving the deckhouse and raising the bridge by nearly 16 feet.
Alphaliner’s ranking shows that Evergreen has risen into sixth place among the major carriers. Currently, they have a total fleet of 200 vessels with a total capacity of nearly 1.54 million TEU. The Taiwanese carrier recently surpassed Ocean Network Express (ONE) with a capacity nearly 30,000 TEU higher than the Japanese company.
CSSC reports that the shipyard located in Shanghai resumed work on April 25 after the COVID-19 related shutdown. So far in May, six ships have been floated out or proceeded to sea trials while the yard is 70 percent back to work after the city’s lockdowns.