The Grand Alliance and The New World Alliance offer joint Black Sea Service

Issued on behalf of Grand Alliance

Hamburg / Hong Kong / Kuala Lumpur / Tokyo / 25 June 2008

The member lines of the Grand Alliance (GA) and The New World Alliance (TNWA) are pleased to announce a jointly operated service from Asia to the Black Sea starting mid-June 2008.

The Grand Alliance and TNWA carriers began co-operating in February this year with a slot exchange on their respective fortnightly services to the Black Sea. The new joint service will now provide shippers a weekly frequency with common port.

Eight vessels are deployed on the service. Grand Alliance member lines operate five vessels. TNWA members operate three vessels. Capacity for these eight ships is about 5,000 TEU.

Port rotation for the Black Sea Service is: Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Singapore, Suez, Istanbul, Constanza, Odessa, Constanza, Istanbul, Damietta, Suez, Jeddah, Singapore, Shanghai.

About the Grand Alliance
The Grand Alliance, formed in 1998, is the leading integrated consortium in global container shipping. Its members are Hapag-Lloyd (Germany), MISC Berhad (Malaysia), NYK (Japan) and OOCL (Hong Kong).

Hapag-Lloyd press release