January 24, 2006 -Tokyo, Japan. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. ("K" Line) will enhance Asia/North America services in 2006 upon receipt of 5 NEW 5500TEU containerships. By having these vessels, we will further upgrade Asia, Japan / PNW service, add new Xiamen calling and provide more competitive transit time. Vessel size in the Asia / PSW, and Asia / USEC will then also be unified with 5500TEU and 4000TEU types, respectively, that is in line with "K" Line's middle term project of service integration since October 2004.
Details of upgrade for each service are as follows:
1. Asia/Japan / US North West Coast Service (PNW) 5 x 5500TEU
PNW service will be upgraded from 4000TEU to 5500TEU containerships, and will offer Xiamen direct calling in addition. Arrival at Tacoma will be advanced from Thursday to Wednesday to shorten transit time. Transit time from Yantian to Tacoma is improved to 12 days from current 15 days.
(Current schedule)
Yantian (Wed-Wed) – Hong Kong (Wed-Thu) – Shanghai (Sat-Sun) – Nagoya (Tue-Tue) – Tokyo (Wed-Wed) – Tacoma (Thu-Sat) – Vancouver (Sun-Mon) – Tokyo (Wed-Thu) – Nagoya (Fri-Fri) – Kobe (Sat-Sat) – Yantian
(New schedule)
Xiamen (Tue-Tue) – Hong Kong (Wed-Thu) – Yantian (Thu-Fri) – Shanghai (Sat-Sun) – Nagoya (Tue-Tue) – Tokyo (Wed-Wed) – Tacoma (Wed-Sun) – Vancouver (Sun-Mon) – Tokyo (Wed-Thu) – Nagoya (Fri-Fri) – Kobe (Sat-Sat) – Xiamen
2. Asia/Japan / US South West Coast Service (PSW-1) 5 x 5500TEU
The service for US largest gate port will be unified to 5500TEU vessels from current 5500TEU and 4000TEU vessels mixed operation. Port coverage and rotation remain unchanged.
3. Asia / US East Coast Service (AWE4) 8 x 4000TEU
The service which is in demand will be unified to 4000TEU vessels from current 4000TEU and 3500TEU vessels mixed operation. Port coverage and rotation remain unchanged.