Taiwan: Asian container lines Evergreen and Coscon are to merge their two jointly-operated services between the Far East-South America and Far East-South Africa into a single route, reports news site MGN. The move was, the companies said, a bid to cope with soaring bunker prices and the poor state of the box market. The new ESA service will operate with a total of eleven 3,500 teu vessels of which Evergreen will deploy seven with four coming from Coscon.  [01/07/09]