CP Ships and Hapag-Lloyd Announce Australasian Service

CP Ships and Hapag-Lloyd announced 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.