Evergreen Line Receives Seatrade Asia 2012 Liner Owner/Operator Award At Singapore Event
SINGAPORE, APRIL 24, 2012 —Global ocean carrier Evergreen Line yesterday received the liner owner/ operator Seatrade Asia Award 2012 at a gala event attended by more than 550 CEOs, maritime executives and industry leaders.
The 5th annual Seatrade Asia Awards took place during Singapore Maritime Week at the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore at an event of dining, entertainment, networking and celebration to reward outstanding performance at the region's finest shipping awards event. Evergreen Line prevailed out of a field of virtually every major ocean carrier in Asian trades and was among four carriers that were shortlisted by the judges.
Those selecting the recipients were Arthur Bowring, Managing Director, Hong Kong Shipowners Association; David Chin, Executive Director, Singapore Maritime Foundation; Yudhishthir Khatau, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Varun Shipping; Yuichi Sonoda, Secretary General, Asian Shipowners' Forum; and Tadayuki Uemura, Deputy Director, Japan International Transport Institute (JITI).
The award was accepted by Adam Lee, president of Evergreen Marine (Singapore) PTE LTD. who represented Evergreen Line at this ceremony. “For more than 40 years, Evergreen Line has endeavored to provide ocean services that would make our customers competitive in the world marketplace,” said Mr. Lee. “As Asia has always been our home, being recognized for services we bring here as well is a great source of satisfaction.”
Within the liner owner/operator award were five specific categories: Customer service innovation, business profitability, schedule reliability, network and service development and commitment to the environment. In Evergreen Line’s entry, the carrier discussed the impact of the wireless-driven business environment in Asia and Evergreen Line’s newly launched ShipmentLink Mobile, an application of its e-commerce system to handheld devices. “ShipmentLink Mobile” is available via iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and mobile devices using Android operating system.
“The system allows customers, whether in an office in Shanghai or on a terminal in Vietnam, to search sailing schedules and track the movements of their shipments anywhere on the globe,” the entry noted.” In addition, customers can check the progress of cargo release by e-mail, find contact details of Evergreen Line’s global service points and read the carrier’s latest news.
In the area of business profitability, the entry noted that “with no long-term debt service, based on visionary decisions to refrain from new shipbuildings throughout the first decade of this century, Evergreen has been able to deal with the ups and downs of profitability and revenue in all of its trades.
Schedule reliability focused on Evergreen Line’s outstanding record of schedule reliability in the Asian trades, committing adequate tonnage and partnering with reputable service providers to ensure promised trade timetables. As Evergreen’s larger-sized newbuildings phase into long-haul services, vessels of middle and smaller sizes will cascade to secondary trade routes’ the company noted. The ripple effect has extended to the intra-Asia market.
Network and service development noted that Evergreen Line anticipates that the intra-Asia market will continue to benefit from further liberalization of regional trade and the recovery of global economy. “With such growth potential, we believe the intra-Asia trade will continue to grow and its market size will be able to keep pace with the Trans-Pacific trade and the Far East – Europe trade. There is no question that the intra-Asia trade will be the focal point of container shipping industry in the future< the entry noted.
The category of commitment to the environment, Evergreen Line was able to discuss its industry-leading commitment to sustainability. “No container ocean carrier stepped forward in its commitment to environmental excellence than Evergreen Line—starting with the company’s Greenships. This year, Evergreen Line’s environmental philosophy and excellence was featured on the Discovery Channel. The show detailed the global ocean carrier’s proactive green shipbuilding efforts initiated by Evergreen Group Chairman Dr. Yung-Fa Chang and helps to promote the importance of marine environmental protection.