Moody’s changes Mitsui O.S.K.’s A3 rating outlook to negative

Tokyo, October 29, 2009 -- Moody's Investors Service has changed to
negative from stable the outlook for the A3 issuer rating of Mitsui
O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (MOL) and the senior unsecured debt ratings of its
supported subsidiaries and Mitsui O.S.K. Finance Plc. and Euromol B.V.

The outlook change reflects the pressure exerted on MOL's earnings and
Moody's concern that the company is likely to take time to recover its
profitability, given the stagnant nature of the ocean shipping market.

On October 27, 2009, it downwardly revised its estimated results for FYE
March 2010 due to stagnant economic conditions in 1H FY2009. It had
projected a JPY 80 billion operating profit on April 27, then revised
this down to JPY 50 billion on July 27, and then -- in this latest
estimate in October -- to JPY 10 billion.

Recently, freight rates for containers have recovered slightly, while car
exports are starting to rise, and freight movements in the dry bulk
market show some stability. But, uncertainty over freight rates will
remain for the second half of this year.

MOL has been implementing cost reductions, mainly in its containership
business, and has tried to increase freight rates by reducing capacity
through laying up and selling ships, and returning chartered ships.
Furthermore, it has tried to maintain a sustainable level of earnings by
increasing its proportion of long-term contracts.

Moody's will closely monitor the pace of profit recovery following these
measures. MOL's rating will face downward pressure if its operating
profit margin is unlikely to recover above 5% by March 2011. The rating
will also undergo a downgrade if adjusted total debt to total
capitalization remains at 60% or higher.

The last rating action with respect to MOL was implemented on November
29, 2007, when Moody's upgraded the issuer rating to A3 from Baa1.

The principle Moody's methodology used in rating MOL was "Global Shipping
Industry", December 2005, which can be found at www.moodys.com in the
Research & Ratings directory, in the Rating Methodologies subdirectory.
Other methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the
process of rating this issuer can also be found in the Rating
Methodologies subdirectory.

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