Maersk Sealand has decided to extend the SAMBA/Indian Ocean service to include the South African to West African market as of 3 March 2003. This extension will be known as the South-West Africa Express. With the addition of two 1,250 TEU vessels, the service will call South America, South Africa, Middle East, Indian Ocean Islands, South Africa and proceed into West Africa with the following rotation:

Durban, Cape Town, Luanda, Cotonou, Apapa, TinCan Island, Abidjan

It will then continue to South America to make direct calls at Montevideo, Rio Grande, Itajai, Paranagua and Santos.

The new service will offer fast transit times from Durban and Cape Town into key West African markets. Maersk Sealand's thorough West African network will offer further coverage to a range of other significant ports.

The first sailing of the new weekly South-West Africa Express will start with the Maersk Valparaiso departing Durban on 3 March 2003.

Maersk Sealand was awarded for "Excellence in Liner Shipping" at the prestigious Lloyd's List Maritime Excellence Awards dinner held at the Old Royal Navy College in Greenwich, London. The award was given to Maersk Sealand for excellence in e-commerce, operational and customer care solutions. Their schedule reliability, commitment to staff training and excellence in ship design was also mentioned. Maersk Sealand was singled out as the world's leading refrigerated container carrier through advanced development in controlled atmosphere containers based on our StarFresh technology.