CMA CGM, Maersk, and, MSC the world's three largest shipping companies, are reorganizing their services between China and the US West Coast with the launch of two joint services in April 2008: the Yang Tse, serving Central and South China, and the Bohai Rim, serving Central and North China.

These two new services will deploy ten 8,000 teu vessels (five on each loop) creating a weekly direct service between China and the United States. These modern state-of-the art ships will provide excellent on-time service so that customers can rely on on-time delivery.

The rotation will be:

Yang Tse - Hong Kong, Yantian, Kaohsiung, Shanghai, Qingdao, Los Angeles, Hong Kong.

Bohai Rim ' Dalian, Tianjin Xingang, Shanghai, Ningbo, Long Beach, Oakland, Dalian

This new initiative allows CMA CGM, Maersk and MSC to rationalize existing services into a more powerful customer responsive service offering. These two new services will provide customers with extensive port coverage in China with twice per week direct calls between China (Hong Kong, Yantian and Shanghai) and California ports, the international gateway to the US.

'The development of the two new services comes as a replacement of existing capacity in the trade. This rationalization of our service will strengthen our China coverage and responds nicely to customer needs for increased presence in North China,' explains Jean-Philippe Thenoz, CMA CGM Vice President North America Lines.