Grand Alliance announces changes
to Asia-Black Sea Express Service (ABX)

03.02.09

Issued on behalf of the Grand Alliance

Hamburg/Hong Kong/Kuala Lumpur/Tokyo, February 3rd., 2009

The member lines of the Grand Alliance, Hapag-Lloyd, MISC Berhad, NYK and OOCL, have decided to temporarily suspend their ABX Service between Asia and Black Sea/East Mediterranean with immediate effect.

The weekly service, which was jointly operated by The New World Alliance (TNWA), has been operated by eight vessels with an average capacity of 5,000 TEU.

Ports of call are Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Singapore, Damietta, Istanbul, Constanta, Odessa, Constanta, Istanbul, Damietta, Jeddah, Singapore, Shanghai.

This service change is in response to the global economic slowdown that has led to reduced customer demand.

However, although the joint cooperation with TNWA on the ABX service has been suspended, the Grand Alliance will continue offering alternative coverage between Asia and the Black Sea/East Med ports. We will inform Grand Alliance customers of their options as soon as possible.

The Grand Alliance, formed in 1998, is the leading integrated consortium in global container shipping.

Hapag-Lloyd press release