Yang Ming's Statement regarding media reports on YM Eternity Arrest Incident
2020/02/11

Dear Valued Customers:

Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. (Yang Ming) is aware of a number of media reports circulating regarding Yang Ming's vessel YM Eternity was arrested in Sydney on February 9th, 2020. To avoid any further misleading to the public, we would like to make the following statement in response to media reports on the incident:

1. Yang Ming would like to confirm that YM Eternity has been released from arrest on February 10th, 2020 and normal cargo operations has been resumed immediately.

2. Yang Ming regrets any inconvenience to Australians and apologizes for the conduct of Australian Maritime Safety Authority ('AMSA') in arresting the YM Eternity in a way that caused unnecessary and maximum inconvenience to Sydney customers on a Sunday and without any notice.

3. With regard to the YM Efficiency incident happened in June 1st 2018, Yang Ming and our insurer responded quickly and effectively to the incident with the immediate allocation of very significant resources and manpower to the loss of the containers and their contents. Yang Ming has been ever since committed to keeping the Hunter Coast pristine and working with the New South Wales Government to ensure all debris that could possibly be associated with the incident is cleaned up within hours of its being reported – even if it was not actually from cargo on the ship. These clean-up operations were at very large expense, all paid by Yang Ming and our insurer.

4. Yang Ming, in association with New South Wales Government and AMSA, organized for sonar scanning of the sea floor commencing after the incident and that has continued subject to weather and safety considerations since.

5. All of the containers lying on the sea floor are in deep water (about 120 meters) with most of the containers lying outside of the Australian territorial sea. Expert reports obtained by Yang Ming conclude that attempting to remove the containers will cause more risk of environmental damage than leaving them in place. The operations to remove the containers shall result in plastics within the containers being released into the ocean. As a consequence, these experts have recommended, considering all the environmental factors, the containers are best left on the sea floor pending further monitoring off the release of plastics from the containers.

Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp.