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Evergreen Marine opens Taiwan’s first automated container terminal, creating a new shipping hub
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Newly built Terminal 7 at Kaohsiung Port, inaugurated on August 14, is considered the most important project of Taiwan’s shipping industry in recent years
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Terminal 7 was developed to meet the operational demands of mega container ships, including Evergreen’s own four 24,000-TEU vessels and 24 methanol-fueled 16,000-TEU vessels being built in Korea and Japan
Evergreen Marine Corp (EMC) opened Terminal 7 at Kaohsiung Port, Taiwan shipping industry’s most important project in recent years and the island’s first automated container terminal.
Evergreen Marine chairman Y.I. Chang, and president Eric Hsieh presided over the opening of the terminal on Monday, August 14, 2023. A host of local government officials and distinguished guests attended the event.
EMC in a press statement said the smart terminal was built with a vision of opening new opportunities for the port and providing substantial enhancements to trade, as it drives ongoing growth of shipping-related industries within southern Taiwan.
Evergreen Marine worked closely with Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC) to develop Terminal 7, with TIPC responsible for building the port infrastructure and Evergreen investing in the operating system and handling equipment, such as ship-to-shore (STS) gantry cranes, automated rail-mounted gantry cranes (ARMGC), reach stackers and side loaders.
Terminal 7 at Kaohsiung was developed in line with the trend of the global container shipping industry and the operational demands of mega container ships, including Evergreen Marine’s four 24,000-TEU vessels and its future 24 methanol-fueled 16,000-TEU container ships ordered from South Korean and Japan.
The new terminal is equipped with 5 berths with a draft of 18 meters, a quay length of 2.4 kilometers, and 24 ship-to-shore (STS) gantry cranes, including 19 remote-controlled ones. Of these cranes, 16 are 55.5 meters high and can handle ultra-large ships with 25 rows of containers on deck, improving the quayside operational efficiency.
EMC said the five berths of Terminal 7 will be inaugurated in two phases. Currently, Berth S5, S4 and S3B are operational while Berth S1, S2 and S3A are scheduled to start operations in July 2024.
When fully operational next year, Terminal 7 will allow four 24,000-TEU container ships and two feeder vessels to berth at the same time. With a yard area of 149 hectares, the facility is able to store 89,238 TEUs of laden containers and 43,656 TEUs of empties.
As Taiwan’s first and largest fully automated container hub with remote-controlled gantry cranes, the terminal can significantly improve the efficiency of container handling operations. Over the long term, it is expected to handle 6.5 million TEUs annually.
“In line with the trend of the international shipping industry and the operational demand of mega container ships, Evergreen consolidated the cargo-handling services in Terminal 4 and Terminal 5 of Kaohsiung Port and moved the operations to the advanced Terminal 7, removing [the need for trucking] to haul containers between the two separate terminals and cutting carbon emissions from such transportation,” EMC chairman Chang said in his speech at the event.
“We made a significant investment in automatic and energy-saving equipment and also launched Containerlink, an online platform which improves service quality by integrating truck appointments for cargo delivery/pickup, container yard operation and digital payment systems.”
Chang added that by building the new automatic quayside operations and the unmanned yard in Terminal 7, EMC is able to provide more efficient, eco-friendly service to its customers and offer a better working environment for its local employees in line with its goal of sustainable operations.
Evergreen said it expects to continue ongoing efforts to provide the best service to cargo owners and enhance market competitiveness.
Along with these new capabilities at Terminal 7 at Kaohsiung Port, Evergreen Group operates dedicated terminals in Los Angeles, Oakland and Tacoma on the US West Coast; the Colon Container Terminal (CCT) in Panama; Tokyo and Osaka in Japan; Kaohsiung, Taichung and Taipei Port in Taiwan; and Laem Chabang in Thailand.
