As Evergreen Marine’s new commercial homeport, Port of Kaohsiung’s 7th Container Terminal is set to bring significant new opportunities for growth to the world’s seventh largest container shipping company. After gradually transferring operating rights to the 7th Container Terminal interior land, warehouse, and administrative building since May of last year (2023), TIPC has this year transferred remaining operational rights to the wharves, container yards, and remaining structures and facilities, allowing Evergreen to formally begin commercial operations at the terminal. Today (Nov. 15), a ceremony hosted by MOTC Minister Shih-kai Chen and attended by shipping line and other organization and agency representatives was held to celebrate the formal grand opening of full-scale Ev-ergreen operations at the 7th Container Terminal.
Port of Kaohsiung’s 7th Container Terminal, built over four years at a cost of NT$32.8 bil-lion (public funds: NT$20.3 billion; private investment: NT$12.5 billion), includes 5 deep-water wharves capable of concurrently handling up to four of today’s largest 24,000TEU-class container ships. Moreover, state-of-the-art wharf-side container gantry cranes, fully automated container yard operations, 5G integrated systems, a remote monitoring and control center, and other advanced smart-port facilities give this terminal a current annual handling capacity of 4.5 million TEU, with planned enhancements set to raise this to 6.5 million TEU over the longer term. Minister Chen in his remarks stated: “Port of Kaohsiung, our nation’s largest and most important seaport, is steadily adding advanced smart-port capabilities. The 7th Container Terminal, realized through public-private partnership, repre-sents more than just a modern fully-automated container processing facility. It is the new homeport of Evergreen Marine, a global top-10 shipping company. This achievement fur-ther confirms Port of Kaohsiung’s rising star and status as a key container hub port for the Asia Pacific Region.”
Inadequate shipping capacity and global economic volatility in recent years have severely tested the operational capabilities of both commercial ports and shipping companies. Since 2011, Port of Kaohsiung has steadily reclaimed land and continued building out its state-of-the-art intercontinental terminal (KIT), renovated the Southern Taiwan Petrochem-ical Storage & Distribution Complex, created new opportunities for port-city cooperation, and expanded overall port handling capacity. Speaking to this point, MOTC Minister Chen noted: “In this era of steadily growing vessel tonnage, high quality and advanced port and wharf facilities are ensuring Port of Kaohsiung’s ability to handle even the world’s largest container ships. This, combined with the most-comprehensively automated container wharves in the nation, give the 7th Container Terminal an unprecedented advantage in terms of handling efficiency.”
TIPC continues to consolidate wharves used by commercial shippers and use tailored in-centive programs to increase shipping line interest in using Taiwan as a transshipment hub to maximize both the value of port infrastructures and shipping line operational effi-ciencies. TIPC Chairman Hsien-yi Lee added: “With Taiwan’s most-advanced smart facili-ties and exceptionally streamlined operations, the 7th Container Terminal is certain to raise Port of Kaohsiung’s global ranking in terms of cargo throughput. Valuing both perfor-mance and sustainability, TIPC does its level best to install world-class equipment and facilities and steadily increase operational efficiencies while protecting and sustaining the marine ecosystem to ensure Port of Kaohsiung has a sustainable, prosperous future and earns the long-term trust and partnership of our shipping partners.”
Strong support from industry and its Free Trade Zone (FTZ) advantages give every confi-dence that, focused on the long-term, Port of Kaohsiung will tenaciously and successfully navigate today’s turbulent ocean shipping market and emerge on the other side stronger than ever.
Provided by：Construction Management and Engi-neering Dept., Port of Kaohsiung, TIPC
Contact Person：Yu-jen Lin, Manager
Telephone No.：07-5622476
E-mail Address：T03161@twport.com.tw
