Swire Shipping are very pleased to inform you of some exciting changes taking place at Swire Shipping. Plans are underway for changes to the structure of the business in 2007, which will significantly improve the efficiency of our shipping lines and enhance our levels of service to you.
Up until now Swire Shipping has been an operational name used as convenient umbrella term for our various liner services. Before the end of the year this arrangement will be formalised when Swire Shipping Limited will be incorporated as the new operating entity for our services, as a wholly owned subsidiary of The China Navigation Company (CNCo).
Within the next few months, Swire Shipping will be adopted as the public brand for most of our existing liner services. Accordingly the brands Chief Container Service, New Guinea Pacific Line, Bank Line, Indotrans, Indotrans Pacific, APIL and Crocodile Line will be retired. Due to separate shareholding structures Greater Bali Hai and Japan South Pacific Line are not included in this brand rationalisation and will continue to trade under their current names. The Bank Line brand will be temporarily retained as a sub-brand and gradually phased out by mid-2007.
In making the decision to more broadly adopt Swire Shipping as our public brand we recognise the historical value and service identity attached to the retiring brands. We believe, however, that the attributes that have made those services so successful will be enhanced by the re-branding. Our services, which span the globe, will operate under one united brand, thereby giving you greater clarity as to the breadth of our services.
The establishment of Swire Shipping Ltd will complete our global service integration project which, since 2003, has seen the acquisition of Indotrans and The Bank Line, and the introduction of several new trades.
In 2004-05 we launched Indotrans Pacific, linking key Australian east coast and New Zealand ports with ports on the west coast of Canada and the United States, as well as Indotrans Asia, linking Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea with the South Pacific Islands.
In May this year, we announced that Indotrans Asia would be integrated into the new Indotrans Eastabout Round The World (RTW) service.
We are convinced that the consolidation of these services under the "Swire Shipping" brand will create global efficiencies across the lines and make it easier for you, our customers, to do business with us anywhere in the world.
We will keep you updated on the progress of the rebranding exercise. In the meantime, we thank you for your past and future support.
