CP Ships and Hapag-Lloyd announce new weekly Australasian servicetitle
GATWICK, UK & HAMBURG, Germany, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - CP Ships
and Hapag-Lloyd announced today that in February 2006 they plan to launch a
new Australasian joint service linking Australia, New Zealand, South East
Asia, the Mediterranean and North Europe via the Suez Canal.
It will have weekly frequency and be supported by twelve 2000-2500 teu
ships.
CP Ships and Hapag-Lloyd are discussing with other interested parties
possible participation in the new service and are also in the process of
finalizing plans for a new service linking Australasia with the US and Europe
via the Panama Canal.
The new Suez service together with the Panama service will replace the
round-the-world services known as Westabout and Eastabout which are being
discontinued in February 2006 because the vessel sharing agreement that
supports these services is expiring.
"We remain strongly committed to offering our customers competitive
services in these trade lanes," said CP Ships Executive Vice President Juan
Manuel Gonzalez. "After reviewing a number of options we concluded that this
is the best way to fulfill our commitment."
Tony Firmin, Managing Director of Hapag-Lloyd Container Line, said he is
delighted that the carrier can expand its presence on these important routes:
"With the additional tonnage deployed, we will be able to meet customer
requirements optimally in future."
Service details are being finalized and will be announced in due course.
The new vessel sharing agreement is subject to regulatory review.
Forward Looking Information
This press release contains certain forward-looking information and
statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating, but not
limited, to operations, anticipated or prospective financial performance,
results of operations, business prospects and strategies of CP Ships. Forward-
looking information typically contains statements with words such as
"consider," "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "plan," "intend," "likely" or
similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding TUIs ability
to integrate successfully CP Ships operations and employees and ability to
realize anticipated synergies and regarding an outlook on future changes in
volumes, freight rates, costs, achievable cost savings, the estimated amounts
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assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or performance.
These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties
and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
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it has a reasonable basis for making the forecasts or projections included
herein, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking
information. By its nature, the forward-looking information involves numerous
assumptions, inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific that
contributes to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts and other
forward-looking statements will not occur. These factors include, but are not
limited to, changes in business strategies; the effects of competition and
pricing pressures; changes in freight rates; changes in operational costs;
industry over-capacity; changes in demand for container shipping; congestion;
availability and cost of chartered ships; changes in laws and regulations,
including tax, environmental, employment, competition, anti-terrorism and
trade laws; and the companys anticipation of and success in managing the
risks associated with the foregoing.
The above list of important factors affecting forward-looking information
is not exhaustive, and reference should be had to the other risks discussed in
filings with securities regulators. CP Ships undertakes no obligation, except
as required by law, to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking
information, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise, or the above list of factors affecting this information.
