Evergreen Marine Corp. was established in Taiwan on 1 September 1968 by Chang Yung Fa, with a single 10,095 DWT cargo vessel, CENTRAL TRUST. It acquired two additional cargo vessels, AOSHIMA MARU and EIHO MARU, renamed EVER ISLAND and EVER STATE, in 1969. The EVER ISLAND was used to launch its first liner service in August 1968 - connecting the Far East with the Arabian-Persian Gulf.
It acquired its first newbuilding, the 15,000 DWT cargo vessel, EVER SAFETY, from the Hayashikane shipyard in January 1972 which was used to launch the Far East-Central/South America service.
It built its first containership, the 646 teu EVER SPRING in July 1975, which was used to launch the Far East-US East Coast service. This was followed by the launch of the FE-US West Coast service in 1976.
In March 1977, it started a container service on the FE/Caribbean route and in May 1978, it started a container service on the FE/Red Sea/Mediterranean route. In January, it also containerised the FE-Middle East service, with the converted cargo ship EVER PIONEER.
From the beginning, Evergreen operated outside of the traditional freight conferences. It also received the financial support of Marubeni Corp. in Japan.
In April 1979, Evergreen launched its Asia-Europe service, deploying the 1,214 teu EVER VITAL.
In 1982, Evergreen launched a program to build 24 G-type containerships of 2,728 teu aimed at their planned twin round-the-world (RTW) services. The RTW services were launched in July 1984.
In 1982, Evergreen launched a program to build 24 G-type containerships of 2,728 teu aimed at their planned twin round-the-world (RTW) services. The RTW services were launched in July 1984.
