Issued on behalf of the member lines of the Grand Alliance: Hapag-Lloyd Container Line (HLCL), MISC Berhad. (MISC), Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL)

The Grand Alliance member lines Hapag-Lloyd Container Line (HLCL), MISC Berhad. (MISC), Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), have announced that they have restructured their service network with a new customer-oriented schedule; offering improvements in services and deploying 152 vessels in 2006, including the cooperation of The New World Alliance (TNWA).

The member lines of the alliance have restructured several of their Trans-Pacific, Trans-Atlantic and Asia-Europe services following the phasing-out of the Maersk-acquired P&O Nedlloyd vessels and the addition and integration of CP Ships, member line Hapag-Lloyd’s subsidiary.

The Grand Alliance can offer their customers a further improvement on last year’s schedule. With the restructuring of the services, in addition to the agreement with TNWA for Europe-Far East traffic, there is a basis for further significant growth.

For 2006, the Grand Alliance will offer the same number of services between Europe and the Far East, which were increased to 8 services in summer 2005. Three of the eight weekly departures will be provided in cooperation with TNWA. The restructured services will call at all major ports in Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and East and South-East Asia. A total of 63 units with capacity between 4,000 and over 8,063 TEU will be deployed on these services.

The Alliance member lines will also continue its service of 11 loops, deploying 74 vessels on the Trans Pacific, including seven loops between Asia and the US West Coast. Three services will travel via the Panama Canal, and one via the Suez. This includes the joint Panama service to be deployed with TNWA in the 2nd Quarter of 2006.

The Alliance is also featuring a new service, offering the fastest Trans-Pacific transit available: 10 days between the Port of Ningbo and Los Angeles. The CCX Service will deploy four ships linking ports in Central China with the port of Los Angeles.

There are various service changes on the North Atlantic. The GMX service will deploy six ships in 2006. Five US-flagged vessels will continue to serve the GAX service, the ATX service will operate with four ships and the PAX service will also be offered in 2006. In total, the Grand Alliance will deploy a total of 15, plus the PAX pendulum ships, with capacity between 2,800 and 4,400 TEU on the North Atlantic.

Thanks to the reorganized and streamlined services, the Grand Alliance achieves impressive and favourable new transit times, greater economy of scale and is otherwise further improving its competitiveness. With the new schedule, the member lines offer an extensive liner network, supplemented with feeder links, and a comprehensive service that is precisely tailored to customer requirements.