---

Evergreen Marine Corp. has recorded a 35 percent fall in profit for the second quarter of 2008 due to surging bunker costs and losses from affiliate EVA Airways Corp.

Asia's largest container shipping line posted a profit of NT$829 million ($26 million) for the 3 month period ended June 30th, compared with a net income of NT$1.28 billion the previous year.

Sales revenue during the second quarter also dropped from a year ago to NT$5.7 billion, a fall of 21 percent.

Evergreen Marine, which operates about 180 ships with a combined capacity of 640,000 standard 20-foot boxes, said that it was unable to pass higher marine fuel costs onto customers because of a slowdown in world trade and stronger competition due to the launch of new ships.

Meanwhile, net income for the first half of the year decreased from NT$1.63 billion last year to NT$1.2 billion in 2008.

Evergreen Marine is the latest in a long line of shipping lines to be affected by the surge in bunker prices during the first six months of the year. The price of 380-centistoke (cst) in Singapore reached a record price of $760 per tonne on July 15th and has since dropped in line with crude prices to yesterday's price of $709 per tonne, a 6.7 percent decrease.

Revenues have also been hit by the fall in trade between Europe and Asia following the credit crisis in a number of countries which has had a knock-on effect on consumer spending.

Container lines also reportedly scrapped plans to charge a $150 levy per cargo-box on Europe-Asia routes at the beginning of August due to weak demand.

Shares in Evergreen Marine on the Taiwan Stock Exchange fell by 3 percent to NT$18 before the second quarter announcement.