Evergreen cutting capacity, Yang Ming considering

Evergreen and Yang Ming have apparently figured out things are NOT getting better any time soon.

Evergreen has already taken steps to cut their fleet by about 1/6th, and Yang Ming is considering putting ships in "hot lay-up". They really should be looking at cold lay-up, but time will tell.

This from Lloyd's List

EVERGREEN Marine, Taiwan’s largest liner company, has confirmed it will either scrap or redeliver back to owners 31 boxships up to 26 years old in a programme that will continue until 2013.

Evergreen spokeswoman Katherine Ko told Lloyd’s List the programme started at the end of last year or earlier this year.

Ms Ko said chartered-in tonnage would be returned at the end of the charter period with no early redeliveries.

Evergreen operated a combined owned and chartered-in fleet of 180 ships and the disposals would represent about a sixth of the Evergreen fleet, she said.

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Yang Ming Marine Transport also confirmed that it was mulling the possibility of putting 10 boxships operated by both itself and other members of the CKYH Alliance into hot lay-up at the end of this year.

A Yang Ming spokesman told Dow Jones: “We are concerned demand on US and Europe routes will be weak in the fourth quarter.”

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