Rickmers-Linie again wins Best Shipping Line - Project Cargo in the annual AFSCA awards

For the second time in a row, Rickmers-Linie, the breakbulk, heavylift and project cargo specialist headquartered in Hamburg, has won the category Best Shipping Line - Project Cargo in the annual Asian Freight & Supply Chain Awards (AFSCA). In a gala dinner held on 10 June 2010 at the Renaissance Shanghai Pudong Hotel, Dirk Wittkowski, Senior Representative of Rickmers-Linie in China, accepted the award from Caesar Yiu, Global Director Leasing at Thermo King in front of an audience of some 400 guests from the shipping, transport and logistics industry.

Key decision makers in the industry take part in an independently verified process for the AFSCAs that comprises both a nomination and a voting round. Readers of the magazine Cargonews Asia nominated Rickmers-Linie due to its excellence in its field, according to the publication's editor Greg Knowler.

The award could not have come at a more appropriate time, as Rickmers-Linie has just launched a new service, linking North Asia with South America and the US East Coast, thus providing more flexibility and space to Asian shippers. Base ports of Rickmers' new NCS Service in Asia are Moji, Kobe, Yokohama and Nagoya in Japan and additional ports can be called on inducement. In Asia, for example, the monthly schedule permits calls in Northern China (Shanghai - Dalian range) and in South Korea. The new NCS service will employ four vessels, each capable of lifting 120-tonne indivisible loads and featuring stern ramps for rolling cargo.

In addition to the newly launched NCS Service and its Pearl String service, Rickmers-Linie offers services from Europe to the Middle East and India, as well as from the US East Coast to Northern China, South Korea and Japan.

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Note to editors

Hamburg-based Rickmers-Linie is one of the world's leading specialists in the global transportation of break-bulk, heavylift and project cargo by sea. The company belongs to Rickmers Group, which offers diversified activities in the fields of liner shipping, shipowning and shipmanagement, investments and real estate as well as maritime related services.

A downloadable photograph to accompany the press release is available at http://www.dunelmpr.co.uk/Rickmers-photogallery-NEW.html.

The caption for the photograph reads:

"Dirk Wittkowski, Senior Representative of Rickmers-Linie in China, accepted the award 'Best Shipping Line - Project Cargo' from Caesar Yiu, Global Director Leasing at Thermo King."

More information about Rickmers-Linie is available at www.rickmers-linie.com. Information about the manifold activities of Rickmers Group is available at www.rickmers.com.