Cape Town, September 15. The Sea-Land Express, now safely berthed in Cape Town's container terminal, is being off-loaded on a priority basis to ensure that the cargo belonging to the customers of Maersk Sealand are expeditiously
handled.


We are very pleased that the vessel has been re-floated, said Lars Reno Jakobsen, Chief Executive of Maersk Sub-Saharan Africa, based in Cape Town. Now we are ready to carryout our customers wishes about how they want their cargos to be handled.

The entire A.P. Møller - Maersk Group wishes to thank all of the South African government agencies and Smit Marine for their professionalism and expertise during the salvage operation, Mr. Jakobsen said. In particular, I deeply appreciate the patience and understanding of the residents of Sunset Beach indeed, all Captonians - during the past three weeks.


Three powerful tugs successfully pulled the Sea-Land Express from the sand in front of Sunset Beach, in Milnerton on Saturday at 15:23 after a well-coordinated salvage operation.


US Ship Management, Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the disponent owner of the vessel, which chartered to Maersk Line Limited and placed in a pool of ships that provides a global maritime transportation service for customers of Maersk Sealand.


The vessel, with 1038 containers on board, ran aground at 06:55 hours on August 19. Since then, Maersk Sealand and Safmarine proactively kept their customers informed about the progress of the salvage effort in order to help them plan next steps for their cargos.

In our capacity as charterers, Maersk Sealand gave all appropriate support to the salvage operation, which included the safe removal of hazardous cargo while the vessel was grounded, said spokesperson Jesse Lewis. Now we are
working closely with our customers to ensure that their cargos are handled according to their wishes.


Maersk Sealand has selected another vessel, the Northstar, to transport the designated cargo from Cape Town to the US East Coast. It is expected to arrive in Cape Town on September 20.