Evergreen has named the last of ten 7,024-TEU S-series vessels built in Japan at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Kobe shipyard.

Due for delivery in January 2008, the newly named Ever Salute, is scheduled to join Evergreen Line's transpacific services.

The first eight vessels in the series are now operating on the company's new China Europe Shuttle (CES) that links Asia and North Europe, while the ninth vessel, Ever Safety, is scheduled for delivery in October and will also enter the transpacific trade.

The S-series ships have won global recognition for their advanced design features, which minimise their impact on the environment. With many of the world's leading manufacturers and retailers now seeking to work in partnership with ocean carriers who are committed to environment-friendly policies, Evergreen Line says it has been inundated with enquiries for more information on its S-series initiative.

EC conference guidelines appear to offer hope for carriers

SHIPPING lines operating in Europe appear to have received a glimmer of hope with the publication of the European Commission's (EC) guidelines for post-conference Europe.

Before this, carriers were concerned that European authorities' pro-competition stance would rule out the possibility for lines gathering essential market information.

But the wording of the recent EC document, formally titled "Guidelines on the application of Article 81 on the EC Treaty to Maritime Transport Service draft", acknowledges the positive use of such information exchanges.

"It is common in many industries for aggregate statistics and general market information to be gathered, exchanged and published. This published market information is a good means to increase market transparency and customer knowledge, and thus produce efficiencies," the Guidelines said.

But it adds that information exchange cannot exist between suppliers to the exclusion of the consumers and other suppliers.

The EC defines a competitive market as one in which transparency between traders is likely to lead to an intensification of competition between suppliers.

The Guidelines also state that the collection of aggregated market data will be favoured over statistics provided on an individual basis.

"The exchange of individual information is more likely to be caught by Article 81 (1) of the Treaty when it relates to commercially sensitive data. The exchange of aggregated information does not, in principle, fall within Article 81(1)."

But the EC said it will pay particular attention to the level of aggregation in determining whether service providers have run afoul of competition policy.

Other factors will be taken into account, says the EC. These factors will include the age of the data provided and the frequency of exchange and of course what information will be shared.

Ultimately the EC says it will be the responsibility of each service provider to determine whether they are in breach of the Treaty.