CMA CGM
CMA CGM S.A. is a French container transportation and shipping company, headed by Mr. Jacques R. Saadé. It is the largest container shipping company in France and the third largest container company in the world, using 76 major shipping routes between 216 ports in 126 different countries.[1]
North American headquarters are based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
History
The history of CMA CGM can be traced back to 1851 when Messageries Maritimes (MM) was established. Another component company, Compagnie Générale Maritime (CGM), was founded in 1855 and renamed as Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in 1861. The two companies merged to form Compagnie Générale Maritime in 1973 as a French state-run entity.
The brothers Jacques Saadé and Johnny Saadé, from Lebanon, created CMA in 1977 as an intra-Mediterranean liner service. In 1996, CGM was privatized and sold to Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement (CMA) to form CMA CGM. The buyout was contested for its low price of 3 M€ by Johnny Saadé, leading to legal disputes between the brothers and eventually the exclusion of the latter.[2]
In 1998 the combined company purchased Australian National Lines (ANL). The company is still growing and has ordered 58 new vessels (owned outright or on long-term leases) to be delivered over the next four years.
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 Italian Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A..[3]
On April 4, 2008, pirates seized the CMA CGM luxury cruise ship "Le Ponant" off the coast of Somalia.
| CMA CGM 2004 | Delmas 2004 | 2004 Total | 2005 pro forma | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Revenue | 4 billion € | 900 million € | 4.9 billion € | 5.95 billion € |
| Number of containers carried | 3.9 million teus* | 520 000 teus* | 4.42 million teus* | 5.2 million teus* |
| Total fleet vessel | 195 | 51 | 246 | 242 |
| Slot capacity | 427,000 teus* | 57,000 teus* | 484,000 teus* | 507,500 teus* |
| Staff Worldwide | 9,000 employees | 1,100 employees | 10,100 employees | 10,000 employees |
| Staff in France (sedentary + seafarers) | 3,300 employees | 600 employees | 3,900 employees | 4,000 employees |
| World ranking | 4th | 24th | 3rd | 3rd |
Subsidiaries
- Rail Link (multimodal rail-bound transport solutions)
- River Shuttle Containers (Rhône – Saône axis containerised river transportation)
- CMA CGM Logistics (purchase to delivery global carrier)
- Qualitair & Sea (custom engineering air freight logistics)
- Progeco (container: sales, leasing & repairing)
- Australian National Lines ANL (Oceania, Asia, Europe & US trades)
- COMANAV (Passenger ferry and container services from Morocco to Europe)
- MacAndrews (Iberian Peninsula shipping and travel industry services)
- CMA CGM Croisières & Tourisme
- Yacht luxury cruises (64-passenger Ponant, 90-passenger Levant, and 226-passenger Diamant)
- Trips onboard container carriers
- Compagnie des Îles du Ponant (leading French-flagged cruise company)
- Tapis Rouge International (luxury travel tour operator)
Maritime Lines
- ECS (Europe Caribbean Service)
- ACSA (Asia Latin America)
- FAL (Europe Far East Service)
- NAF (North Africa Service)
- VASCO EXPRESS (Latin America Middle East)
- SAMWAF (Latin America Africa)
External links and references
- ^ "CMA CGM website".
- ^ Renaud Lecade (2005-07-19). "Touché-coulé chez les frères Saadé" (reprint) (in French). Libération.
- ^ CMA CGM completes the acquisition of Delmas, Jan. 10, 2006, CMA CGM press release.
- ^ "Key Figures". CMA CGM.