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Matson Orders 2 More Ships from Kvaerner Philadelphia

April 2005

Seafarers-contracted Matson Navigation Co. on Feb. 24 announced plans to purchase two more ships from Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard, Inc. The vessels are part of a planned $365 million investment in ship, container and terminal assets that will be used to launch a new Guam and China service. The new service is scheduled to start in February 2006. The new vessels will be similar in capacity, speed and operating efficiency to Matson’s Seafarers-crewed MV Manukai and MV Maunawili. Both were built by Kvaerner Philadelphia; they entered service in 2003 and 2004, respectively. According to Matson, the new builds are expected to be delivered and placed in service by July 2005 and June 2006 at an estimated combined cost of $315 million. The company has the option to time charter these vessels in lieu of purchasing them. It also will have a right-of-first-refusal with the shipyard for up to four other containerships of similar design that are deliverable before June 2010. The company also noted that both new ships by mid-2006 will be deployed in an integrated weekly West Coast-Hawaii-Guam-China service together with three of the company’s most efficient diesel-powered containerships. The planned routing will include port calls at Long Beach, Honolulu, Guam and two ports in China. “These new ships, coupled with our other two new KPSI vessels, will ensure that Matson continues to provide Hawaii with efficient, dependable ocean transportation services for decades to come,” said James Andrasick, Matson president and CEO. Matson in recent years has been modernizing its fleet, retiring older steam-powered vessels to improve fuel and operating efficiencies. With the addition of the two newest ships, the average age of Matson’s active containership fleet will be a relatively young 14 years. “Matson is very satisfied with the performance of the first two KPSI-built vessels that are now part of the company’s Hawaii service,” added Andrasick. “We are confident that these additional two KPSI ships will further enhance the overall quality and operating efficiencies of the Matson fleet.” Matson provides ocean transportation, intermodal and logistics services in U.S. domestic markets. Matson is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. of Honolulu.