CMA CGM


CMA CGM S.A. is a French container transportation and shipping company. It is a leading worldwide shipping group, using 200 shipping routes between 420 ports in 150 different countries, ranking fourth behind Maersk Line, MSC and COSCO Shipping Lines. Its headquarters are in Marseille, and its North American headquarters are in Norfolk, Virginia, United States.
The name is an acronym of two predecessor companies, Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement and Compagnie Générale Maritime, which translate as "Maritime Freighting Company" and "General Maritime Company".

History

The history of CMA CGM can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century, when two major French shipping lines were created, respectively Messageries Maritimes in 1851 and Compagnie Générale Maritime in 1855, soon renamed Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in 1861. Both companies were created partly with the backing of the French State, through the award of mail contracts to various destinations, French colonies and overseas territories as well as foreign countries. After the two World Wars, the two companies became "State owned corporations of the competitive sector", i.e. companies that, while owned by the State, were run as private for-profit businesses operating in competitive markets. The French government, under President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, progressively merged the two companies between 1974 and 1977 to form Compagnie Générale Maritime, which was still owned by the French State and still run as a competitive business, although sometimes subject to political pressure, for instance on the selection of shipyards to build new ships.
Compagnie Générale Maritime operated as such from 1974 to 1996 when it was privatized by the French state under President Jacques Chirac and prime Minister Alain Juppé. During these 22 years it operated freight and container liner services in various global trade lanes, as well as a fleet of dry bulk ships, and a few large oil tankers and Liquefied Natural Gas tankers, with headquarters located in Paris western suburbs, first in Paris-La Defense, then in close by Suresnes.
The CGM liner services, mostly containerized but also operating a significant fleet of "Con-Ro" vessels able to load roll-on/roll-off cargoes, were re-structured from the two parent companies' main trade lanes, i.e. Western trade lanes for Compagnie Générale Transatlantique and Eastern trade lanes for Messageries Maritimes. After merger and re-structure, CGM's liner services were managed in four distinct Trade Divisions, North America & Far East which also managed the bulk and tanker fleets, South America & Caribbean, Pacific & Indian Ocean and Short Sea Trades.
Separately, Jacques Saadé had created CMA in 1978 as an intra-Mediterranean liner service operator, based in Marseille. In 1996, CGM was privatized and sold to Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement to form CMA CGM.
In 1998 the combined company purchased Australian National Lines.
CMA CGM Balzac in the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium
CMA CGM acquired its French rival Delmas based in Le Havre from the Bolloré group in September 2005 for 600 million Euros. The acquisition was completed in early January 5, 2006. The resulting corporation became the third largest container company in the world behind the Danish A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and the Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A..
On April 4, 2008, pirates seized the CMA CGM luxury cruise ship Le Ponant off the coast of Somalia.
CMA CGM and its affiliates have been victimized in various arms-shipping incidents.
As a result of CMA CGM's involvement in Iranian weapons smuggling, US congressmen have called on CMA CGM to be investigated and urged the US Treasury Department to consider levying sanctions against the shipper. The company has since implemented tighter procedures for accepting shipments bound for Iran, including scanning all containers destined the country. CMA CGM also ceased exporting from Iran in November 2011.
In 2014, CMA CGM signs the OCEAN THREE agreements. The group strengthens its offer by signing major agreements on the biggest worldwide maritime trades with CSCL and UASC.
In April 2015, the group acquired a strategic stake in LCL Logistix, a logistics leader in India, via its subsidiary CMA CGM LOG.
In December 2015, CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin called at the Port of Los Angeles and thus became the largest vessel ever to call the United States. The container-ship, long and wide, was inaugurated in Port of Long Beach on February 19.
In July 2016 CMA CGM finalized its acquisition of Singapore-based NOL and its container line APL after an all-cash offer of US$2.4 billion. The takeover is CMA CGM's largest acquisition and the purchase added 12 percent market share to the CMA CGM group. The Singapore Exchange Securities Trading suspended trading of NOL shares at the end of the offer.

Key figures

CMA CGM 2016
Total revenueUSD 16.0 billion
Number of containers carried15.6 million TEUs
Total fleet vessels445
Total fleet capacity2.208 million TEUs
Staff worldwide29,000 employees
Staff in France4,500 employees

Subsidiaries

Other maritime activities
Terminal activities
Intermodal activities and logistics
Support activities
In 2016, CMA CGM's fleet included:
This fleet sails 200 maritime services and calls at 420 ports in 160 countries. There are 521 commercial ports in the world at the moment.
Some emblematic group's vessels are:
Created in 2005, the CMA CGM Corporate Foundation for Children's objective is to improve the well-being of children. It defined three targets: