Container ships have dominated the global new shipbuilding market this year. While new ship orders have continued to decline due to geopolitical and international relations factors, another major order worth tens of billions of dollars has been announced in the container ship market!
On November 12, Evergreen Marine Corporation, a container shipping company based in Taiwan, China, announced it has finalized the order for 14 new Panamax-class container ships with 14,000 TEU capacity and LNG dual-fuel propulsion. These vessels will be built by Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) under China State Shipbuilding Corporation and South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries. The total value of the order reaches up to US$2.87 billion.
Specifically, GSI and Samsung Heavy Industries will each construct seven vessels, with the unit price per ship ranging from $175 million to $205 million. The total contract value for each shipyard falls between $1.215 billion and $1.435 billion. Greek shipbroker Intermodal previously estimated that these container ships are expected to be delivered between 2028 and 2030.
The aforementioned 14 new ships represent Evergreen’s second batch of LNG dual-fuel 10,000-TEU container ships confirmed for order this year. Combined with the 11 24,000-TEU LNG dual-fuel ultra-large container ships announced earlier this year with a total value exceeding $3 billion, Evergreen has invested nearly $5.9 billion in the newbuild market this year.
The first batch of 11 new ships was also shared between Chinese and Korean shipyards, with GSI and Hanwha Ocean building 5 and 6 vessels respectively. Including these newbuild projects, Evergreen—a top-10 global liner shipping giant—is poised to expand its fleet capacity beyond 2 million TEU!
Notably, 2025 marks the first year of collaboration between GSI and Evergreen. The five newbuilds delivered at the beginning of the year represent the first shipbuilding contract secured between the two parties. Combined with the second batch of seven newbuilds, GSI has now secured orders for 12 dual-fuel container ships of two types from Evergreen this year, with a total value exceeding $2.9 billion.
Container ship orders hit record high amid industry expansion
Evergreen’s multi-billion-dollar order comes as major container shipowners continue to drive industry expansion. The total order backlog for global container shipowners has now reached a record high, exceeding 10 million TEU.
Despite the uncertainties brought by trade policies and tariffs, the container shipping sector continues to thrive, with new vessel orders across all major ship types flooding the market like dumplings being dropped into boiling water.
In the large container ship market, leading carriers such as Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), CMA CGM, and Yang Ming Marine Transport have all expanded their newbuild orders. Thailand’s RCL Group has placed its first order for two 13,800 TEU-class large container ships to broaden its market footprint.
Shipowners in the small-to-medium container ship market are scrambling to place orders, securing slots at shipyards already facing tight capacity. Amid this surge in container ship orders, emerging shipyards are now competing for these contracts.
For example, Hapag-Lloyd is finalizing a project with CIMC Raffles for 8+6 4500TEU container ships. If the project proceeds smoothly and a contract is signed, it will be CIMC Raffles’ first container ship construction project. Cochin Shipyard in India also plans to expand its shipbuilding business with six feeder container ships from CMA CGM.
While global new ship orders have been relatively sluggish this year, the container ship market has not only shown signs of a surge in capacity, but its shipbuilding projects have also performed exceptionally well in the new shipbuilding market. With 2025 already shaping up as a year of robust growth for container shipping, recent data from Alphaliner indicates that Chinese shipyards hold nearly 7.4 million TEU in new vessel orders, while South Korean shipyards have secured over 2 million TEU in new orders.