[ UASC Enters into a Consortium with TRICON ]

United Arab Shipping Company(SAG), the national shipping line of six
Arab Gulf Countries, with its Head office at Kuwait, has entered into
a consortium agreement with the TRICON group, consisting of
DSR-Senator Lines and Cho Yang, effective January 1997. In turn, the
Tricon group also has a co-operation with Hanjin Shipping Co., which
will become the majority shareholder in DSR-Senator Lines.
This agreement further intensifies UASC’s desire to provide its
customers with an improved quality of service and a broader scope of
geopraphical service .
During the initial phase of the agreement, the service scope would
include the America-Mediterranean-Asia Service(AMA); the Asia-Middle
East-Europe service(AEC) and the India-Pakistan-Express
Service(JPEX).
These arrangements would allow UASC to offer in addition to her
existing weekly service from Europe/Red Sea/Arabian Gulf/Far East and
vice versa(AEC) a direct weekly service between Asia and the US East
Coast, the Mediterranean and the US East Coast, the Red Sea/Arabian
Gulf/Indian Sub-Continent and the US East Coast and between Europe
and the Indian Sub-Continent and vice versa. The new arrangements
also expand UASC’s geographical coverage of ports and adds direct
coverage of China through the Shanghai call on the AMA service.
UASC would be taking delivery of 10×3800TEU containerships being
built in Japan, between March and November 1998. The new Consortium
agreement combined with the new vessel deployment is a significant
development for UASC which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.
Speaking to the Press on the agreement, Abdulla Mady Al Mady,
President & Chief Executive Officer of UASC stated: “This agreement
ushers in a new era for UASC and confirms our avowed interest to
co-operate with other similarly minded carriers to improve our
service product and rationalize costs”.
The new group is expected to pool a total of 80 containerships with a
combined slot capacity of nearly 250,000TEU’s.