30-Second Overview
In 1968, Chang Yung-fa — a carpenter's son from a fishing town in northeastern Taiwan — bought a 15-year-old secondhand freighter and founded Evergreen Marine. Seventeen years later, it was the world's largest container shipping company. In 2021, its vessel Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal, blocking global trade for six days at an estimated cost of $10 billion per week. That same year, pandemic-era freight rates pushed Evergreen's net income to NT$239 billion ($7.8 billion). Today it ranks seventh globally with fleet capacity of 1.92 million TEU and roughly $13 billion in annual revenue. The founder's death in 2016 triggered an eight-year inheritance war that is still reshaping the company.
The Carpenter's Son
Chang Yung-fa was born in 1927 in Su'ao, a harbor town on Taiwan's northeastern coast. His father was a ship carpenter who spent most of his life at sea. In 1945, when Chang was eighteen, his father died aboard a vessel, leaving a widow with seven children.
Rather than flee the ocean that took his father, Chang walked deeper into it. He started as a cabin boy at a Japanese shipping firm, studied on his own, and worked his way up to captain. European and American cargo owners came to know him by reputation: "Y.F. Chang — once he decides something, that's how it is. He doesn't change." (Quoted in CommonWealth Magazine, "From a Carpenter's Son to the World's Container Shipping King")
Two partnerships failed. On September 1, 1968, at age 41, Chang bought a 15-year-old general cargo vessel from Japan and registered Evergreen Marine Corporation. The company's address said Taipei. Its real office was the dock.
📝 Curator's Note: Evergreen didn't start from success. It started from a son choosing to go back to the sea that killed his father.
The Containerization Gamble
In the 1970s, global shipping was undergoing a revolution: containerization. Loose cargo went into standardized steel boxes. Dockhands were replaced by cranes. Ships grew larger. Most Asian carriers were still watching from the sidelines. Chang had already moved.
He spent two years and one million U.S. dollars on market research, securing financing from Japan's Marubeni Corporation (reported in CommonWealth Magazine). In 1975, Evergreen launched Taiwan's first fully containerized regular service between East Asia and the U.S. East Coast.
The next decade was a blitz. In 1984, Chang commissioned 24 G-type container ships and opened an unprecedented round-the-world eastbound and westbound service — crossing the Atlantic, a lane no Asian carrier had entered.
In 1985, just seventeen years after its founding, Evergreen Marine became the world's largest container shipping company.
Key Figures
Metric Data Founding capital One 15-year-old secondhand ship (1968) Reached world #1 1985, 17 years after founding Current global rank 7th by TEU capacity (2025) Fleet capacity 1.92 million TEU (early 2025) Annual revenue ~$13 billion (TTM, March 2026) Orderbook ~850,000 TEU, 44% of existing fleet
Six Days That Blocked the World
On March 23, 2021, the Ever Given — a 400-meter-long vessel carrying 20,124 TEU under the Evergreen banner — ran aground in the Suez Canal. The ship wedged itself across the channel like a clot in an artery.
Six days. 422 vessels stranded. Roughly 12% of global maritime trade passes through that canal. Allianz estimated economic losses of up to $10 billion per week. The Suez Canal Authority lost around $100 million. A University of Gothenburg study later calculated that Maersk alone lost nearly $89 million from the disruption.
The incident forced the world to confront something most consumers never think about: nearly everything you order online probably traveled on a ship. And that ship might well have a green hull with EVERGREEN painted on its side.
📝 Curator's Note: Ever Given is the ship's name; Evergreen is the company's. The world's memes mixed them up — but what the incident really exposed wasn't a naming confusion. It was how fragile modern supply chains are. One ship can halt global commerce.
Pandemic Windfall
The year of the Ever Given incident, another force was remaking the industry. COVID-19 scrambled global supply chains — port congestion, container shortages, freight rates at unprecedented levels.
Evergreen's 2021 net income hit NT$239 billion (roughly $7.8 billion), with earnings per share of NT$45.57. The following year was even bigger: net income of NT$334.2 billion, a cash dividend of NT$70 per share, and a yield above 45%. A cyclical shipping stock suddenly became the darling of Taiwan's retail investors, who nicknamed it the "King of the Seas."
But shipping people know: tides always turn. From 2023, freight rates collapsed. Evergreen's share price dropped more than 50% from its peak. Retail investors who chased the top learned the oldest lesson in maritime economics — shipping profits don't move in straight lines. They move in waves.
The Founder Dies, the Empire Fractures
On January 20, 2016, Chang Yung-fa died at 88. He left a will directing his entire estate to Chang Kuo-wei, his only son from his second marriage.
The first family contested it. Chang Kuo-cheng, the third son from the first marriage, filed suit to invalidate the will. The litigation lasted eight years. During that period, Chang Kuo-hua — the eldest son who controlled the group's Panamanian holding company, Evergreen International S.A. (EIS) — allegedly sold approximately NT$30 billion in assets. The Kuo-wei camp accused him of hollowing out the inheritance while the courts were tied up.
In 2022, Kuo-wei allied with his second brother Kuo-ming and seized control of Evergreen International, ousting Kuo-hua's management team. But Kuo-wei subsequently resigned from subsidiary UNI Air's chairmanship.
In August 2024, Taiwan's Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and confirmed the will's validity. Kuo-wei inherited over NT$10 billion. But how much remains in EIS after eight years of asset sales is still unknown.
📝 Curator's Note: The empire Chang Yung-fa built over forty years was pulled apart over eight. This isn't unique to Taiwan — but in an economy where family-controlled groups account for over 60% of GDP, every succession battle doubles as a public seminar on corporate governance.
The Next Bet: Green Fuel
Evergreen currently ranks seventh globally, with fleet capacity of about 1.92 million TEU. But the number that matters is the orderbook: roughly 850,000 TEU in newbuilds, equal to 44% of the existing fleet.
These aren't just bigger ships. In 2023 and 2024, Evergreen placed intensive orders for methanol dual-fuel and LNG dual-fuel container vessels, investing billions of dollars. The International Maritime Organization requires net-zero emissions by 2050. Evergreen's strategy is dual-track — methanol and LNG — rather than betting everything on a single fuel.
It echoes the pattern Chang Yung-fa set decades ago with containerization: not the first mover, but once committed, all-in.
An Island's Lifeline at Sea
Taiwan depends on maritime shipping for 99% of its foreign trade. The island has no oil, no iron ore, barely enough fresh water. But it has a semiconductor industry the world depends on, the seventh-largest container fleet on Earth, and generations of seafaring people — from dockworkers to captains to founders.
Chang Yung-fa wrote in his memoir Iron Will, Gentle Heart: "You can't be afraid of battle when you're building an empire — once the ship sails, the cargo must be delivered."
He delivered. The question is who steers now. In 2024, the Supreme Court stamped its verdict on the inheritance case. But in shipyards across Asia, Evergreen's next-generation methanol-powered vessels are taking shape. When they launch, the hulls will still be green. EVERGREEN will still be painted on the side. Who stands on the bridge — that's a different story.
References
- Evergreen Marine Official — About Evergreen (primary)
- CommonWealth Magazine — From a Carpenter's Son to the World's Container Shipping King
- CommonWealth Magazine — Chang Yung-fa: A Leader's Strategy
- Wikipedia — 2021 Suez Canal obstruction
- Allianz / GrECo — A World Loss Event: Ever Given
- University of Gothenburg — The Cost of the Suez Canal Blockage (academic)
- United Daily News — Evergreen 2021 net income NT$239 billion
- United Daily News — Evergreen NT$70 dividend (FY2022)
- StockFeel — Evergreen Succession Battle Explainer
- Alcott Global — Ranking the Global Shipping Giants 2024-2025
- Offshore Energy — Evergreen orders 6 methanol dual-fuel boxships (primary)
- CompaniesMarketCap — Evergreen Marine Revenue
- Liberty Times — Chang Yung-fa: From deckhand to world's #1 shipping king
- Chang Yung-Fa Foundation — Iron Will, Gentle Heart Exhibition (primary)