Date: Monday, October 3, 2005

Re:	FOS/MER PORT CLOSURE

Dear NASA Member:

Please be advised that Friday’s Newsflash regarding the strike(s) in France inadvertently indicated that the truckers were on strike which is incorrect. The actual cause of the strike in the south of France is a result of the government’s desire to privatize a ferry line that runs between France and Corsica, known as the SNCM. It is actually the ferry workers that are blocking access to the ports. No containers have been allowed in or out of these terminals and consequently several vessels have already skipped these ports in their rotation.

A further consequence of this action is that truckers that currently have loaded containers on their chassis cannot offload the containers and therefore cannot pick up any empty containers for positioning. This ultimately leads to missed loading appointments and further missed sailings. October 4th is still scheduled as a national strike day in France which means that all government workers, including all port and rail employees, will be on strike.

It is difficult to predict how long the ferry workers’ strike will last but is unlikely to end at least before the middle to end of this week. We are exploring other options, such as shipping through ports in Spain or Italy but space is also tight in these other ports. The other option is to consider taking the loaded container to Antwerp, but the additional cost of this service would be roughly EUR$1300 per container.

We will continue to keep you updated and please do not hesitate to contact us with any further questions. If you are interested in moving your container via Antwerp, please contact your sales executive. Thank you for your continued support.

Best regards,

JF Hillebrand USA, Inc.

David J. Ferris
Managing Director

T +1 732 680 4516 (direct)
F +1 732 388 0631
d.ferris@jfhillebrand.com