Evergreen Marine

The company was founded 1 September 1968 by Yung-Fa Chang. Services began with a single cargo vessel named Central Trust, which operated a "go-anywhere" service. A second vessel was added in 1969, and used on Middle East services. Additional vessels were acquired through the 1970s, and routes to East Asia and Central America were added. Service to the U.S. began in 1974, with the establishment of Evergreen Marine Corporation (New York) Ltd.

In 1981, the parent company changed its name to Evergreen International S.A. (EIS), as the company increased its global expansion efforts. Evergreen Marine began its first circumnavigation shipping services in 1984. This service is bi-directional, covering both westbound and eastbound routings.

In 1992, almost 29,000 rubber ducks called "Friendly Floatees" were unintentionally dumped into the Pacific Ocean from a container lost overboard by the Evergreen ship Ever Laurel.

Since then, Evergreen Marine has expanded to include other shipping companies such as the Uniglory Marine Corp. (Taiwan) in 1984, the Hatsu Marine Ltd. (U.K.) in 2002, and the Italian shipping company Italia Marittima (previously Lloyd Triestino, and founded as "Österreichischer Lloyd" in 1835) in 1993. Uniglory was made a division of the company in 1999. Evergreen Marine is partnered with EVA Airways, founded in 1989, and Uni Air, founded in 1998.

In 2002, Evergreen Marine operated 61 container vessels, with a total fleet size totaling 130 vessels with 400,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units). By 2008, Evergreen Marine operated 178 container vessels. In 2009, the company announced plans to build 100 additional vessels, in anticipation of a global economic recovery by 2012.

Operations

Evergreen Marine's operations primarily center around five general routings:

East Asia to North America/Central America

East Asia to Northern Europe/Mediterranean

Europe to North America (transatlantic)

Accidents and incidents

Ever Laurel

In 1992, nearly 30,000 Friendly Floatee bath toys en route to Tacoma, Washington were spilled into the Pacific Ocean.

Ever Summit

In January 2019, the Ever Summit crashed into a crane. There were no deaths or injuries.

Ever Given

On 23 March 2021, the container ship Ever Given became stuck in the Suez Canal, leading to a significant impediment in marine shipping world-wide. After nearly a week, tugboats and heavy machinery managed to re-float and free the ship.

Ever Forward

On 13 March 2022, the container ship Ever Forward ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay, near Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. The ship left the dredged navigation channel and became stuck. On 31 March 2022, Evergreen declared general average after two attempts to refloat the vessel had failed. Containers were removed from the ship to lighten the load, and dredging was also underway to allow the ship to be freed. On the morning of 17 April, coinciding with the rising tide, the vessel was finally refloated.

Ever Lunar

On 1 August 2025, the container ship Ever Lunar reportedly lost approximately 50 containers near Port of Callao. Local authorities had previously closed all ports along the coast due to a tsunami warning.