[ “New World Alliance” Begins Transition to.. ]

“New World Alliance” Begins Transition to New Worldwide Ship Deploym
ent

APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine and Mitsui OSK Lines announced that their
new worldwide agreements to coordinate vessels and terminals and shar
e vessel space will operate under the name “New World Alliance”. Thi
s alliance will porvide highly competitive market coverage, sailing fr
equences and transit times in all of the major East-West container tra
des, through the coordination of some 100 containerships globally.
The New World Alliance has successfully concluded a transition plan wi
th members of the Grand Alliance to ensure a smooth start-up of servic
es in the Asia-Europe, Asia-Mediterranean and Asia-North America trade
s, beginning later this month and completed by mid-March.
Services plans for the Europe-North America trade are expected to be f
inalized shortly.
The three carriers have also enhancements to and further developed the
vessel deployments previously announced on December 15, 1997, which w
ill further strengthen the alliance services.
In the trans-Pacific, the New World Alliance members have redesigned t
heir overall service pattern in order to offer one of the nine Asia-U.
S. West Coast services on a seasonal basis, during the peak shipping s
eason in the summer and fall--should market and economic conditions su
pport an additional weekly service.
The New World Alliance has also adjusted vessel schedules to provide f
urther improvements in trans-Pacific sailings from Hong Kong and South
China. Customers will have access to an 11-day, non-stop express ser
vice from Yantian, South China to Los Angeles; three weekly 12-day ser
vices from Hong Kong to Los Angeles; and a total of eight weekly trans
-Pacific services sailing directly to and from China ports. As previo
usly announced, the SAX service will feature a 13-day transit from Sin
gapore to Los Angeles-- 2~3 days faster than competing services. Othe
r highly competitive ocean transits include 15 days from Bangkok (Laem
Chabang) to Los Angeles and eight days from Tokyo to Seattle.
In the Asia-Europe trade, the New World Alliance will offer three high
ly competitive sailings each week to North Europe ports, and a weekly
service between Asia, the Middle East, and five Mediterranean ports.
Customers will have access to three sailings each week to/from Hong Ko
ng and Singapore, with fast transits such as 18 days from Hong Kong to
Le Havre, 15 days from Singapore to Rotterdam, 13 days from Colombo t
o Southampton, and 25 days from Tokyo to Hamburg.
Additionally, the alliance will offer direct Asia-Europe sailings to a
nd from three China ports. Asia-Mediterranean transit times will also
be among the fastest available in the industry.
Negotiations are continuing with some ports and terminals in Asian and
Europe. The port calls listed at the end of this release will apply
to the alliance’s commencement of service, but may be adjusted as a r
esult of these negotiations.
In a joint statement, the three shipping lines said: “As a result of
our exciting deployment plans for 1998, we are confident that customer
s will associate the New World Alliance name the highest levels of oce
an transportation services available on a worldwide basis.”