A Greek shipowner-charterer has taken delivery of the first in a series of 10 ships with capacities of 13,800 20-foot-equivalent units that will be deployed on Evergreen Line services.

The Thalassa Hellas was delivered to Greece’s Enesel by Hundai Heavy Industries of South Korea.

The ship was named last week in a double ceremony along with the second ship in the series, the Thalassa Patris, which is set to be delivered at the end of November.

Eight additional vessels are scheduled to be delivered next year and chartered to Evergreen. The Taiwanese carrier is expected to operate them between Asia and northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Evergreen held back while other lines were ordering large container ships, but eventually chartered the 13,800-TEU ships to match the sizes of vessels operated by alliance partners.

The new ships will feature a design that burns the same amount of fuel as typical 8,000-TEU ships. By waiting until 2012 to order its new vessels, Evergreen also was able to obtain ships at a reported one-third savings from prices of comparable ships a few years ago.

via: www.joc.com