Fitch Affirms U.S. Port Ratings

As part of its peer review process, Fitch Ratings has affirmed the ratings for its U.S. ports.

The affirmation is the culmination of a detailed review of all of Fitch's U.S. stand-alone port ratings excluding consolidated entities that issue combined debt for port and other transportation related business units. A spreadsheet detailing Fitch's rating actions can be found at www.fitchratings.com.

Fitch will shortly release a peer report titled “Peer Review of U.S. Ports: Attribute Assessments, Metrics and Ratings” that highlights financial metrics and key rating driver attribute assessments that Fitch has assigned over the past year. As part of its rating criteria and the peer review process, Fitch has developed risk attribute assessments of strong, midrange and weak for the five key rating drivers listed in its rating criteria. The attribute assessments for each port along with key quantitative metrics are identified in Fitch's port peer report and will be contained in all future press releases for individual ports.