Three Taiwanese container ship operators among world's top 20
Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp. was the sixth-largest container ship operator globally last year, while two other Taiwanese operators also made it into the top 20, according to a report released by the United Nations' Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Tuesday, Focus Taiwan reports.
Evergreen ranked sixth with 159 vessels and 570,843 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and was the only one in the top 10 that had an average vessel size smaller than 4,000 deadweight tons, according to the Review of Maritime Transport 2012, which ranked carriers based on data from 2010-2011.
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. moved up one notch to 15th place with 84 vessels, 343,476 TEUs and an average vessel size of 4,089 deadweight tons.
Wan Hai Lines Ltd, which has strategic alliances with Evergreen and Japan's MOL Logistics, edged out United Arab Shipping Company of Kuwait to become the 20th-largest operator with 89 vessels, 185,146 TEUs and an average vessel size of 2,089 deadweight tons.
The top five operators were Maersk Line of Denmark, Mediterranean Shipping Company of Switzerland, CMA CGM Group of France, APL of Singapore and Cosco of China, according to the report.
However, according to the latest data by container market analyst Alphaliner, as of Dec. 4, the number of Evergreen vessels has increased from 159 to 184 and has surpassed APL and Cosco to become the world's fourth-largest.
In addition, the UNCTAD report also ranked Taiwan as the 13th country among 159 countries evaluated on the Liner Shipping Connectivity Index, which shows how well a country is connected to global shipping networks. Taiwan ranked 15th last year.
The UNCTAD evaluates countries according to five criteria -- number of container vessels, the container-carrying capacity, the size of its largest vessel, number of services and number of companies operating international shipping in the country's ports.
The top five on the index are China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia.
However, UNCTAD noted that while the world's seaborne trade increased by only 4 percent in 2011, the global fleet continued to grow to reach 1.5 billion deadweight tons in January this year, representing an increase of over 37 percent in just four years.
"With supply outstripping demand, freight rates fell even further, to unprofitable levels for most shipping companies," the report said, warning of the danger of the imbalance between supply and demand.
Meanwhile, Kaohsiung Port in southern Taiwan ranked as the 12th- busiest container port in terms of TEUs in 2011.
Shanghai topped the list of busiest ports, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Busan. Ningbo, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Dubai and Rotterdam took the sixth to 10th places.
