June 19, 2002



MOL joins APL West Asia Express Service


From June 2002, MOL will join APL's West Asia Express service (WAX). The new WAX service will deploy five (5) over-panamax vessels of 4700 TEU type, replacing the current 4000 TEU type ships deployed in this service. APL will operate four (4) ships (APL Qingdao, APL Chiwan, APL Ningbo, APL Dubai) and MOL will operate one (1) ship (MOL Maas). MOL names this new service "CMI" Container Service of Middle East and India

CMI service port rotation and schedule are: Kaohsiung (Fri-Sat), Pusan (Mon-Tue), Qingdao (Wed-Wed), Shanghai (Thu-Fri), Ningbo (Sat-Sat), Hong Kong (Mon-Mon), Singapore (Thu-Fri), Jebel Ali (Fri-Sat), Fujairah (Sat-Sun), Nhava Sheva (Tue-Wed), Singapore (Mon-Tue), Kaohsiung (Fri). Transit time highlights include; To Jebel Ali, from Qingdao 16 days, from Ningbo 13 days, from Hong Kong 11 days on its westbound. From Fujairah to Singapore 8 days, From Nhava Sheva, to Singapore 5 days, to Kaohsiung 9 days on its eastbound.

The first sailing of the CMI commenced with the "APL Qingdao" voyage 001W, which departed from Pusan on June 4, 2002.

"MOL is pleased to join APL's West Asia Express service which is a well reputed and established service for West Asia. It provides our customers not only good coverage of the emerging China market for the Middle East trade, but it also provides them with direct service from China to Nhava Sheva, the number one gate port of India," said Hideyuki Sadamatsu, Managing Director, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (Asia) Ltd. "Furthermore, CMI offers our customers excellent connections from China to Europe on its westbound leg and from Gulf/India to North America on its eastbound leg via Singapore connection," Sadamatsu concluded

MOL is one of the world's largest multi-modal shipping companies, operating a diverse network of container shipping and logistics services around the globe. MOL is a founding carrier partner in GT Nexus, an e-logistics solutions company. Please visit the company's website at www.molpower.com.