CP Ships announces deployment of first two newbuilds to US East Coast-Indian Sub-Continent service
09 Août 2005 - 10:06PM
PR Newswire (US)
GATWICK, UK, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CP Ships Limited
announced today that the first two of nine 4250 teu ships ordered
two years ago will be deployed in its US East Coast-Indian
Sub-Continent service. They will be named after two of India's most
popular national parks, Kanha and Corbett. And, following the new
CP Ships vessel naming convention, the names will be prefixed by
"CP." Delivery of CP Kanha is expected in mid-October 2005, with CP
Corbett coming in early January 2006. They will replace smaller,
slower and more costly short-term chartered ships. "We have been
looking forward to the first of our new ships. They give us the
opportunity to confirm to customers our commitment to this service,
improve transit times, leave room for growth and enable us to
operate the service more efficiently. Because of the dramatic rise
in charter prices since these ships were ordered, we have no doubt
that we made the right decision in 2003," said Juan Manuel
Gonzalez, Executive Vice President. All nine ships are being
long-term chartered from Seaspan Container Lines and are currently
under construction at Samsung Heavy Industries in Korea. The
remaining seven are on schedule with one each to be delivered in
first, second and third quarters 2006, two in fourth quarter 2006,
one in first quarter 2007 and one in second quarter 2007. Their
deployment has not yet been finalized. CP Ships already has 11
similarly sized ships in its fleet, bringing the total to 21 by
April 2007. "These ships, ideally suited for our regional services,
will be the workhorses of our fleet. Having a substantial fleet of
similar-sized ships will give us considerable flexibility to take
advantage of opportunities as they arise because of changes in
trade demand," Mr Gonzalez added. CP Ships operates the US East
Coast-India Sub-Continent service as part of a vessel sharing
agreement with two other carriers. The frequency is weekly and port
rotation is New York, Norfolk, Charleston, Port Said, Suez Canal,
Colombo, Nhava Sheva, Suez Canal, New York. The service is
currently marketed under the Contship Containerlines and Lykes
Lines brands and will be offered under the CP Ships name when CP
Ships completes its adoption of a single brand. ABOUT CP SHIPS: One
of the world's leading container shipping companies, CP Ships
provides international container transportation services in four
key regional markets: TransAtlantic, Australasia, Latin America and
Asia. Within these markets CP Ships operates 39 services in 22
trade lanes, most of which are served by two or more of its seven
brands: ANZDL, Canada Maritime, Cast, Contship Containerlines,
Italia Line, Lykes Lines and TMM Lines. On 28th April 2005, CP
Ships announced it will re-brand its services under the CP Ships
name. At 31st March 2005, CP Ships' vessel fleet was 81 ships and
its container fleet 454,000 teu. Volume in 2004 was 2.3 million
teu, more than 80% of which was North American exports or imports.
CP Ships also owns Montreal Gateway Terminals, which operates one
of the largest marine container terminal facilities in Canada. CP
Ships' is listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under
the symbol TEU and also in the S&P/TSX 60 Index of top Canadian
publicly listed companies. For further information visit the CP
Ships website, http://www.cpships.com/. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:
This press release contains certain forward-looking information and
statements within the meaning of the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating, but not limited
to, operations, anticipated or prospective financial performance,
results of operations, business prospects and strategies of CP
Ships. Forward-looking information typically contains statements
with words such as "consider", "anticipate", "believe", "expect",
"plan", "intend", "likely" or similar words suggesting future
outcomes or statements regarding an outlook on future changes in
volumes, freight rates, costs, achievable cost savings, the
estimated amounts and timing of capital expenditures, anticipated
future debt levels and incentive fees or revenue, or other
expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions
or statements about future events or performance. Readers should be
aware that these statements are subject to known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking
statements. Although CP Ships believes it has reasonable basis for
making the forecasts or projections included in this press release,
readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such
forward-looking information. By its nature, the forward-looking
information of CP Ships involves numerous assumptions, inherent
risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute
to the possibility that the predictions, forecast and other
forward-looking statements will not occur. These factors include,
but are not limited to, changes in business strategies; general
global, political and economic and business conditions, including
the length and severity of any economic slowdown in the countries
and regions where CP Ships operates, including seasonality,
particularly in the United States, Canada, Latin America,
Australasia, Asia and Europe; the effects of competition and
pricing pressures; changes in freight rates; industry
over-capacity; changes in demand for container shipping;
availability and cost of chartered ships; changes in laws and
regulations, including tax, environmental, employment, competition,
anti-terrorism and trade laws; difficulties in achieving cost
savings; currency exposures and exchange rate fluctuations, fuel
price and interest rate fluctuations; changes in access to capital
markets and other sources of financing; various events which could
disrupt operations, including war, acts of terrorism, severe
weather conditions and external labour unrest, all of which may be
beyond CP Ships' insurance coverage; compliance with security
measures by governmental and industry trade practice groups; the
outcome of civil litigation related to CP Ships' restatement of
financial results and the impact of any resulting legal judgments,
settlements and expenses; and CP Ships' anticipation of and success
in managing the risks associated with the foregoing. The above list
of important factors affecting forward-looking information is not
exhaustive, and reference should be made to the other risks
discussed in CP Ships' filings with Canadian securities regulatory
authorities and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. CP Ships
undertakes no obligation, except as required by law, to update
publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking information,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise,
or the above list of factors affecting this information.
DATASOURCE: CP Ships CONTACT: INVESTORS: Jeremy Lee, VP Investor
Relations & Public Affairs, Telephone: (514) 934-5254; MEDIA:
Elizabeth Canna, VP Group Communications, Telephone: +44 (0)1293
861 921 or +41 (0)79 691 3764
Copyright