The company said the agreement for the 18,000-teu vessels includes the six already announced in December.

Deliveries are set from 2018 to 2019, thought to be from Imabari in Japan.

“Evergreen adopts the most advanced shipbuilding technologies and cooperates with Shoei to build the new generation ultra-large containerships,” it said.

The vessels are 400 metres long and 59m wide. Optimised hulls and minimum ballast water requirements will maximise cargo capacity, the company said.

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