| July 30, 2003 |
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| Enhancement of Terminal Business |
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| International Transportation Service, Inc. (I.T.S.), a
member of "K" Line Group, has been operating container terminals in the Ports of
Long Beach, CA, Oakland, CA, and Tacoma, WA and providing high quality services not only
to "K" Line (and its customers), but also to other major steamship lines (and
their customers) calling at the I.T.S. terminals. |
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| I.T.S, having commenced its Oakland, CA container terminal
business in 1986, recently signed a Letter of Intent with Port of Oakland for a new 10
year Non-Exclusive Preferential Assignment Agreement, or terminal lease, commencing in
July, 2003. Among other benefits, this Agreement provides I.T.S. with an option to add
additional shoreside gantry cranes and to expand the berth length along with the terminal
acreage. I.T.S. continues toward their commitment of providing a high level of quality
services at the Port of Oakland, the third largest gate port along the U.S. West Coast. |
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| In the Port of Long Beach, I.T.S. initiated its container
terminal business by commencing container stevedoring and terminal operations in 1971. As
the cargo volumes handled at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have been soaring
steadily in recent years, especially from Asia, in order to cater to such strong market
demand, I.T.S. has just completed, in January, 2003, Phase 1 of its terminal enhancement
plan. During Phase 1, the terminal was expanded from 120 acres to 220 acres and a new
state-of-the-art 19-lane one-stage pedestal gate system was introduced, which is augmented
with a video camera inspection system, a driver’s license reader recognition system,
a voice communications system activated between truck drivers and clerk labor, a buckslip
(or EIR transaction) printer system. The gate system will be further enhanced by the
introduction of an Optical Character Recognition System (or O.C.R.) which will
automatically read and recognize container numbers, chassis numbers and truck license
plate numbers for each truck arriving and departing the terminal. With the use of these
systems and high technology, efficiency of all gate activities has been significantly
improved. |
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| Another enhancement completed within Phase 1 was the
expansion of the I.T.S. on-dock rail facility. In this regarding rail trackage has been
added allowing capacity of the rail yard to increase from a total of 35 DST cars to 72 DST
cars. |
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| Furthermore, an additional deep-sea berth of 1,300 feet in
length is under construction and is projected to be operational commencing in the fourth
quarter of 2003. In late September, 2003, two post-panamax (19 containers wide) shoreside
gantry cranes will be received at the new berth and will supplement the current 14
shoreside gantry cranes at the terminal. With the completion of the berth construction, an
additional 13 acres will be added to the terminal acreage, bringing the total terminal
acreage to about 233 acres at that time. |
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| I.T.S. has and will continue to take necessary steps to
provide the highest quality of services to all of its customers in anticipation of future
market demand. |
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| For questions about this announcement, please contact below
: |
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| Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. Tokyo |
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| Takashi Saeki |
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General Manager, Containerships Business Group
Tel: +81-3-3595-5293, Fax:+81-3-3595-5285
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| Yukikazu Myochin |
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Manager, Planning Team
Tel: +81-3-3595-5309 Fax:+81-3-3595-5288
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| the Port of Long Beach, I.T.S. |