ANERA AND TWRA TO CEASE RATEMAKING EFFECTIVE APRIL 30

ANERA AND TWRA TO CEASE RATEMAKING EFFECTIVE APRIL 30

   Member shipping lines in the Asia North America Eastbound Rate Agreement (ANERA) will indefinitely suspend the group’s rate making activities, effective April 30, 1999, suspending both its rates and rules tariff.

   The move coincides with the expiration of ANERA’s approximately 800 service contracts in the Asia to U.S. trade and with the regulatory changes taking place May 1, the effective date of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998.

   The six remaining carriers in the Transpacific Westbound Rate Agreement
(TWRA) will discontinue activities as a group in the depressed westbound
transpacific rates, also on April 30. All but two of the conference’s
members have already announced their resignation from the conference on May 1.

   ANERA has notified accounts that it will not be offering new service
contracts or extensions to existing ones. In both trades, lines will assume
responsibility for maintaining and making publicly available their
individual rate tariffs and will negotiate and file their own individual
contracts, as well as contracts in cooperation with other carriers.

   The nine members of ANERA are APL, Hapag Lloyd, "K" Line, Maersk, Mitsui O.S.K., N.Y.K., OOCL, P&O Nedlloyd and Sea-Land. The six members of TWRA are "K" Line, Maersk, Mitsui O.S.K., N.Y.K., OOCL, P&O Nedlloyd and Sea-Land.