Date: Thursday, September 17, 2009 Re:  General Rate Increases (GRIs) expected on North Atlantic Trade in October We wanted to take the opportunity to update you on the current situation regarding shipments on the North Atlantic. In the last edition of Uncorked we reported the following: What is happening? The shipping industry is seeing extensive space rationalization as carriers react to profit losses stemming from weak demand and rising operating and fuel costs. This month Alphaliner, a key liner shipping news source, reported that AP Moller - Maersk posted a $921M loss for the first half of 2009, dropped its active fleet by 5% and idled an additional 4% in the past 12 months. Likewise Hapag Lloyd took an operating loss at €435M,cut its active fleet by 7% and is idling a further 7,500TEU. Evergreen, CMA-CGM, APL, Hanjin, NYK, MOL, OOCL, to name others have also reported losses and are responding by trimming active fleet, idling vessels to adjust for capacity, scrapping older vessels, re-evaluating new vessel orders, and terminating unprofitable lanes. Looking at the top 25 carriers alone, the shipping capacity has fallen by 11% overall from reductions in active fleet and forced idle fleet. Transatlantic Westbound For the transatlantic trade in particular, to date the drop in capacity represents 5,800 TEUS per week. Star Shipping and China Shipping have exited the transatlantic trade completely; MSC and the Grand Alliance are merging two Montreal loops into one while the Grand Alliance is terminating an additional Canada loop; and Hamburg Sud is cancelling the Europe to US portion of their Trident service. We anticipate further announcements from the trade which could mean an additional 4,200 TEUS per week (or 10,000 TEUs weekly overall). All combined this would represent a 20% reduced capacity on the transatlantic corridor from just April this year. Since this was reported Evergreen announced that they were pulling their service from the trade which was the 4,200 teus per week mentioned above so the overall reduction of 10,000 TEUS per week has effectively taken place. The underlying reason for these drastic reductions is for the lines to be able to control capacity and ultimately raise the ocean freight rates and this is exactly what is happening. JF Hillebrand continues to negotiate with the lines on an almost daily basis and although the final numbers have yet to be agreed we wanted to alert you as to what is happening. As of today we expect General Rate Increases (GRIs) on the North Atlantic trade in the range of $200-$250/40' dry container to the East Coast and $300-$350/40' dry container to the West Coast. We are continually trying to mitigate these increases and will confirm the final amounts as soon as the negotiations are completed but we wanted you all to be aware of the changes. These increases are scheduled to go into effect on October 1st. As soon as the final numbers are confirmed your individual sales representative will contact you with the final GRI amounts. We thank you for your continued support and remain at your disposal to assist in any way possible.