Hatsu Marine, a liner subsidiary of Taiwan's Evergreen Marine, from next month will double the capacity it provides to cater for the growing markets between Asia and the Middle East.
The British-based affiliate of the world's No3 container carrier will next month take delivery of the 1,618-teu (20ft equivalent unit) Hatsu Prima from its shipyard in Nagasaki, Japan, and immediately place the vessel on the group's service network covering trade between Asia and the Arabian Gulf.
Hatsu began including a Middle East offshoot to its core transpacific services, where it deploys five 6,300-teu vessels, last year by introducing a vessel of similar capacity. An executive said at the time: 'We are testing the market potential with the view to a longer-term commitment.'
The addition to that circuit of the Hatsu Prima, the latest in a series of 15 P-class vessels, indicates that the service has shown enough demand to warrant capacity expansion.
Last year, Hatsu deployed the Hatsu Pride, Hatsu Prima's predecessor, to its service between the Far East and the Red Sea, which it operates in a vessel-sharing agreement with the mainland's No1 box carrier, China Ocean Shipping.
Hatsu was established in 2000 as a British-based arm of the Taiwanese shipping giant to take advantage of British tonnage tax laws, which allow companies to pay taxes based on the tonnage they register rather than on revenue earned.
