Evergreen Line has confirmed it will join the two Asia Australia Services, known as AAS and AAN, operated by four steamship lines -- APL, Hamburg S'd, Hapag-Lloyd and Hyundai Merchant Marine. Compared to Evergreen Line's existing TCA route, the new service pattern enables the carrier to offer wider port coverage and improved transit time.

The new arrangement will commence in the last week of October 2008.

With the participation of Evergreen Line, the five ships of AAN service will be upgraded from the range of 2,500-2,700 TEU to average 3,500 TEU. The service rotations of AAN and AAS are listed as follows.

The AAN (Northern Loop) service will call weekly at: Yokohama, Osaka, Pusan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Yokohama.

The AAS (Southern Loop) weekly route is: Kaohsiung, Yantian, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Kaohsiung.

In Northeast Asia, AAN service covers Yokohama, Osaka, Pusan and Qingdao in addition to Shanghai and Ningbo currently served by TCA. In Taiwan and South China, AAS loop matches TCA in the same coverage of Kaohsiung, Yantian and Hong Kong.

Without stopovers in South China, AAN offers more competitive transit time from Shanghai and Ningbo to Australia. Together with AU-3 service which links Southeast Asia and Australia, Evergreen Line will be able to offer more comprehensive coverage and more efficient service in Asia-Australia trade.