ACL IPO Closes

American Commercial Lines Inc. (NASDAQ: ACLI) announced the closing of the initial public offering of 9,487,500 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $21.00 per share. Of the shares sold in the offering, 7,500,000 shares were sold by ACL and 1,987,500 shares were sold by a selling stockholder. The shares sold by the selling stockholder included 1,237,500 shares purchased pursuant to an option granted by the selling stockholder to the underwriters, which was exercised in full. Based on the public offering price of $21.00 per share and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, the net proceeds to the Company were approximately $146.5 million, and the aggregate net proceeds to the selling stockholder were approximately $38.8 million. ACL will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholder. ACL shares of common stock commenced trading on the NASDAQ National Market on October 7, 2005 under the trading symbol “ACLI.” Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS Investment Bank acted as joint bookrunners for this offering. Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank Securities acted as co-managers. Copies of the final prospectus may be obtained from Merrill Lynch & Co., 4 World Financial Center, 5th Floor 250 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10080, and UBS Securities LLC, Prospectus Dept., 299 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10171. A registration statement relating to these securities was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 6, 2005. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor will there be any sale of these securities in any State or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such State or jurisdiction. American Commercial Lines Inc., headquartered in Jeffersonville, Indiana is an integrated marine transportation and service company operating in the United States Jones Act trades, with revenues of more than $600 million and approximately 2,600 employees. For more information about ACL generally, visit www.aclines.com.