APL Sails into East Africa with New Service

Weekly service developed in response to growing demand in emerging region

Singapore, 04 June 2007 - APL, a global leader in container transportation, today announced the launch of the East Africa Express (EAX) service.

Developed to meet growing customer demand and to leverage the strong growth potential of the East Africa region, the weekly EAX service will connect the Indian subcontinent and Arabian Gulf to East Africa. Trade from the Far East bound for East Africa will depart from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Nhava Sheva in India. The port at Nhava Sheva will also serve cargoes originating from the Indian subcontinent and Arabian Gulf, alongside ports in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Jason Wong, APL’s Vice President, Intra-Asia, Middle East & Australia Trade, said: “Africa is an expanding economy which continues to report impressive GDP growth, averaging about 5% annually in the past six years. In East Africa, economic growth is projected to accelerate to around 6% in 2007 and 2008. To leverage on the region’s strong growth potential, APL is extending its footprint into East Africa to provide customers with consistently high-quality transportation services.”

“With APL’s first-class shipping capabilities, the EAX service will guarantee customers a smooth-sailing success for their cargo deliveries to and from East Africa.”

The EAX port rotation is: Colombo (Sri Lanka) – Dar Es Salamm (Tanzania) – Mombassa (Kenya) – Nhava Sheva (India) – Port Qasim (Pakistan) – Jebel Ali (UAE) – Mombassa (Kenya) – Dar Es Salamm (Tanzania) – Colombo (Sri Lanka).

”The recent increase in demand APL has witnessed in this region suggests East Africa is ready for a service of this nature. The EAX is in line with our strategy of adopting an early entry approach in emerging markets. This enables our customers to be the first to benefit from opportunities throughout the world,” added Mr Wong.  

APL constantly assesses market demand across the globe as part of its ongoing commitment to provide innovative, strategic, and high quality transportation services to its customers.

For more information on the EAX and APL’s other services, click here http://www.apl.com/services/

About APL
APL is a global container transportation company offering more than 60 weekly services and nearly 300 calls at more than 90 ports in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. It combines world-class intermodal operations with leading-edge IT and e-commerce. APL is a unit of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), a global cargo transportation and logistics company.

Media Inquiries:

Asia-Middle East
Paul Barrett
Telephone: (65) 6371 7959
paul_barrett@nol.com.sg

Americas
Mike Zampa
Telephone: 510 272 7380
Mobile 510-520-6760
michael_zampa@apl.com

Europe
Peter Owen
Telephone: (44) 1737 248 300
peter@isiscomms.com