MOL Announces Additional Winter Capacity Plans

December 10, 2007

Tokyo, 10 December 2007 - Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL, President Akimitsu Ashida) today announced additional winter capacity plans for the trade between Asia and the US East Coast via Panama Canal.

Late last month, MOL announced that it would be withdrawing more capacity to the US West Coast and earlier than in previous years in the face of an unprecedented rise in operating costs - particularly for fuel.

The latest announcement will see MOL reduces a further 13% of capacity to the US East Coast. APL, HMM, MOL and CMA CGM have decided to skip some sailings in their ESX deployment from mid-December to the end of March.

MOL remains committed to providing customers with premium global container shipping services. However, it did not rule out future additional network adjustments to minimize the impact of dramatically higher costs on their respective businesses.