London, 25th June 2008:

The Grand Alliance and The New World Alliance

Offer Joint Black Sea Service

The member lines of the Grand Alliance (GA) and The New World Alliance (TNWA) are pleased to announce a jointly operated service from Asia to the Black Sea starting mid-June 2008.

The Grand Alliance and TNWA carriers began co-operating in February this year with a slot exchange on their respective fortnightly services to the Black Sea. The new joint service will now provide shippers a weekly frequency with common port.

Eight vessels will be deployed on the service.  Grand Alliance member lines will operate five vessels.  TNWA members will operate three vessels.  Capacity for these eight ships is about 5,000 TEU.

Port rotation for the Black Sea service is: Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Singapore, Suez, Istanbul, Constanza, Odessa, Constanza, Istanbul, Damietta, Suez, Jeddah, Singapore, Shanghai.

About the Grand Alliance

The Grand Alliance, formed in 1998, is the leading integrated consortium in global container shipping. Its members are Hapag-Lloyd (Germany), MISC Berhad (Malaysia), NYK (Japan) and OOCL (Hong Kong).  The Grand Alliance members deploy in their services a total of about 140 vessels with a capacity of between 2,700 and 9,000 TEU offering 20 services, mainly on major east- west routes.

ENDS

About NYK:
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha is one of the world's leading transportation companies. The NYK Group operates approximately 777 major ocean vessels, as of the end of March 2008, as well as fleets of planes, trains, and trucks. The company's shipping fleet includes around 155 containerships, 286 bulk carriers, 55 wood-chip carriers, 113 car carriers, 21 reefer carriers, 79 tankers, 30 LNG carriers, and three cruise ships. NYK's revenue in fiscal 2007 was about $26 billion, and as a group, NYK employs about 51,000 people worldwide. The company has offices in 240 locations in 27 countries, warehouses on nearly every continent, and harbor operations in Asia, North America, and Europe. NYK is based in Tokyo, and has regional headquarters in London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, and Sao Paulo.