ACL has announced that the U.S. Coast Guard has awarded a QUALSHIP 21 certificate to its entire fleet of container/RORO vessels: Atlantic Star, Atlantic Sky, Atlantic Sail, Atlantic Sun and Atlantic Sea.

The U.S. Coast Guard makes every effort to ensure safe, secure, and environmentally sound maritime commerce and offers this program to reward those companies, operators, and vessels that demonstrate the highest commitment to quality and safety through the highest level of compliance with international standards and United States law and regulation.

The criteria to achieve QUALSHIP 21 certification include achievements such as the following:

• The vessel must be registered to a QUALSHIP 21 qualified flag administration.

• The vessel must have no substandard vessel detentions in the U.S. within the previous 36 months.

• The vessel must have no marine violations or serious marine casualties and no more than one Notice of

Violation ticket in the U.S. within the previous 36 months.

• The vessel must have a successful U.S. Port State Control safety exam within the previous 24 months.

• The vessel must not be owned or operated by any company that has been associated with more than one

PSC detention in U.S. waters within the previous 24 months.

The U.S. Coast Guard has recognized ACL’s commitment to quality, safety, and the environment. The certification process for Qualship 21 is very demanding and has rigorous checklists that the successful carrier must pass. As a result, very few vessels attain this status. It should be noted that ACL did not achieve Qualship 21 certification for one of its vessels but ALL of its vessels. Few if any carriers can boast of this achievement.

In his letter of certification to ACL, Brian M. Hall, CDR, Chief, Port State Control Division, USCG wrote: “To highlight, less than 20% of all foreign-flagged vessels that operate in the United States meet the strict eligibility requirements of this program; therefore, I applaud the efforts of your organization and the master and crew of the QUALSHIP 21 designated vessels for consistently maintaining an exceptional commitment to quality.”

Andrew J. Abbott, President and CEO commented on the Company’s achievement: “ACL’s marine operations management team have been focused on achieving the highest standards with our vessels, officers, and crews. Our ships have had no significant down-time for over 5 years and continue to exceed the highest environmental standards. I am very proud of the captains and crews of our vessels, whose continued attention to detail have given us so many perfect scores on our inspections, thereby making an intensive certification such as Qualship 21 possible.”