CP Ships and Hapag-Lloyd announce new weekly Australasian service
18 November 2005 - 1:03AM
PR Newswire (US)
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
TUI's 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 and timing of
capital expenditures, anticipated future debt levels and incentive
fees or revenue, or other expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives,
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 those suggested by the
forward-looking statements. Although CP Ships believes 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 company's 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. DATASOURCE: CP Ships CONTACT:
Investors - Jeremy Lee, VP Investor Relations and Public Affairs,
Telephone: (514) 934-5254; Media - Elizabeth Canna, VP Group
Communications, Telephone: +44 (0)1293 861 921 or +41 (0)79 691
3764
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