Globalisation on the march ....

It's been a busy time for Dr Chang Yung-Fa, Chairman of the Evergreen Group. On 18 July 2006 he was in London receiving the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) (for services to shipping and British economic interests.) at a ceremony held in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office , London. Dr Chang is seen here with old China hand, Baroness Thatcher, and the UK's Deputy Prime Minister Ex bar steward and serial shagger Mr John Prescott. He then went on to Buckingham Palace with HRH the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, the UK's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment.

Evergreen Group company, Hatsu Marine, was established as a British shipping company in 2002, and is now one of the largest shipowning entities in the UK and received the Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade this year.

On the 26th August Ever Steady, the latest in a series of ten 7024TEU S-type vessels being built for Evergreen in Japan, was launched. These S type vessels were designed for environmental protection and as Dr Chang claimed, "We don't want fuel oil tanks to be located at the sides and at the bottom of the ships. If fuel oil tanks are located inside the hulls along the transverse bulkhead, damage to tanks and oil leakage incidents caused by grounding and collisions can be dramatically reduced."

The Port of Los Angeles awarded Evergreen awarded first ever Environmental Excellence award for their 'S' type vessels.

Now EVA Air, a subsidiary of Dr K C Chang' s Taipan based Evergreen Group (now ranked amongst the top ten air cargo carriers, ahead of both British Airways and Air France) in partnership with General Electric have seen the first (and hughly successful) flight of the huge new Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter (LCF) at 10:38 a.m. (UTC/GMT +8 hours) today.

The enormous jet -- with its enlarged upper fuselage that can accommodate three times the cargo by volume of a standard 747-400 freighter. It has been modified by Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corp., and is the first of 3 to be modified for ferrying parts of the Boeing Dreamliner.There will be 500 hours of testing before it receives approval.

A fleet of three LCFs will ferry 787 assemblies between Nagoya, Japan; Grottaglie, Italy; Wichita, Kan. and Charleston, S.C., before flying them to the Boeing factory in Everett, Wash., for final assembly. The first two LCFs will enter service in early 2007; the third will follow later.

Scott Strode, 787 vice president of Airplane Development and Production tells me "The LCF fleet is the foundation of our lean, global production system." ... which is not good news for Seattle.

Meanwhile BAE have agreed the sale of their 20% interest in EADS manufacturers of the Airbus.