CMA CGM

Compagnie maritime d'affrètement - Compagnie générale maritime, commonly known as CMA CGM is a French shipping and logistics company founded in 1978 by Jacques Saadé.[7] The name is an acronym derived from its two predecessor companies, Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement (CMA) and Compagnie Générale Maritime (CGM), which translate to "Maritime Freighting Company" and "General Maritime Company", respectively.

Headquartered at the CMA CGM Tower in Marseille, France,[8] the group is the third-largest container shipping company in the world.[9] For the 2024 fiscal year, the company reported an annual revenue of US$55.48 billion.[1]

CMA CGM operations include shipping, port operation, supply chain management, and warehousing. The company has a presence in 160 countries with 400 offices, 750 warehouses, 155,000 employees, and a fleet of 593 vessels. CMA CGM serves 420 of the world's 521 commercial ports and operates 257 shipping lines.[10]

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 (MM) in 1851 and Compagnie Générale Maritime (CGM) 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" (Entreprise publique du secteur concurrentiel), 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 government 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 (CGM) operated as such from 1974 to 1996 when it was privatized by the French state under President 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 (LNG) 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 (Americas) for Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT) and Eastern trade lanes (Asia, East Africa, Pacific, plus Eastern South America) for Messageries Maritimes (MM). After the merger and re-structure, CGM's liner services were managed in four distinct Trade Divisions, North America & Far East (AMNEO, for Amérique du Nord & Extrême Orient) which also managed the bulk and tanker fleets, South America & Caribbean (AMLAT), Pacific & Indian Ocean (PACOI) and Short Sea Trades (Cabotage).

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 (CMA) to form CMA CGM.[11]

In 1998 the combined company purchased Australian National Line.[12]

In September 2005, CMA CGM acquired its French rival Delmas based in Le Havre from the Bolloré Group for €600 million. The acquisition was completed in early January 5, 2006. The resulting corporation became the third largest container company in the world behind the Danish Maersk and the Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company[13]

In May 2007, a consortium represented by CMA CGM completed its acquisition of Compagnie Marocaine de Navigation (Comanav) for a sum of €200 million.[14][15] In July 2007, CMA CGM acquired Cheng Lie Navigation Corp. (CNC Line), Intra-Asia container line based in Taiwan.

In 2009, CMA CGM acquired the Port of Latakia in Syria under a consortium comprising CMA CGM/Terminal Link and Souria Holding, a Syrian limited liability company.[16]

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 firm 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.[17] The container-ship, 1,300 ft long and 177 ft wide, was inaugurated in Port of Long Beach on February 19.[18]

In July 2016 CMA CGM finalized its acquisition of Singapore-based NOL (Neptune Orient Lines) and its container line APL (American President Lines) 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.[19][20]

In June 2017, CMA CGM acquire Mercosul Line, a Brazilian shipping company specialized in multimodal door-to-door container transportation and logistics.[21] In October 2018, CMA CGM finalized the acquisition of Finland-based container-transportation and logistics company Containerships.[22]

In April 2019, CMA CGM completed its public tender offer to acquire CEVA Logistics.[23][24] With this acquisition, the CMA CGM Group becomes 110,000 people strong with more than $30.3 billion in revenue. CEVA operational center is transferred in Marseille, France, where is located the Head Office of the CMA CGM Group.[25] In September 2019, the world's first LNG-powered container ship is launched.[26]

In March 2020, Rodolphe Saadé announced that CMA CGM was offering 200,000 FFP2 protective masks to France Health Agency to fight against the COVID-19 virus.[27] In February 2021, CMA CGM Group completes its logistics offer by creating a new division dedicated to air freight: CMA CGM Air Cargo. With its four Airbus A330-200F cargo aircraft, this airfreight division links Europe to North America.[28] The first flight from Liège to Chicago marks the debut of commercial operations.[29]

In September 2021, CMA CGM announced a partnership with fellow Breton-based operator Brittany Ferries. The partnership involves a €25 million investment, plus a CMA CGM representative joining Brittany Ferries' supervisory board.[30][31][32]

In May 2022, CMA CGM signed a strategic partnership with Air France-KLM to develop their air cargo capacities together. However, this partnership, implemented in April 2023,[33] was terminated by mutual agreement in January 2024 without change in the 9% stake acquired by CMA CGM in the Franco-Dutch airline group.[34][35]

In January 2024, CMA CGM made a takeover offer for Wincanton plc.[36][37] In March 2024 CMA CGM withdrew the offer.[38]

In January 2026, CMA CGM agreed to form a $10 billion joint venture with Stonepeak called United Ports. Upon completion, CMA CGM will own 75% of the venture and will seek to accelerate investments in US based ports.[39] In the same month intermodal container rail operator Freightliner was acquired.[40][41][42]

Ownership

CMA CGM is 73% owned by Rodolphe Saadé and his family through Merit France SAS. The Turkish family-owned company Yildirim Holding has a 24% stake and French public sector investment bank Bpifrance has a 3% holding.[43][44][45]

Subsidiaries

Joint ventures

• CMA Systems, a business entity in partnership with IBM involving development of new technologies like the cloud computing.[47]
• Terminal Link, a joint venture between CMA CGM (51%) and China Merchants Port (49%).
• 5-year partnership with startup Mistral AI beginning in 2025 and focusing on artificial intelligence initiatives for customer service in shipping and logistics and factchecking for CMA CGM's media businesses. As part of the deal, CMA CGM will invest up to €100 million with Mistral.[48]

Fleet

In 2023, CMA CGM's fleet included:

The fleet has 200 maritime services and calls at more than 420 ports in 160 countries. There are 521 commercial ports in the world at the moment. Some emblematic group's vessels are:

• 593 vessels
• 4,500,000 container TEUs
• 600,000 reefer container TEUs

• CMA CGM Jules Verne (16,020 TEUs) was christened in June 2013 by the French President François Hollande. At that time, this vessel sailing under the French flag was the world's biggest container ship.
• CMA CGM Marco Polo (16,020 TEUs)
• CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt (16,020 TEUs)
• CMA CGM Kerguelen (18,000 TEUs)
• CMA CGM Vasco de Gama (18,000 TEUs)
• CMA CGM Bougainville (18,000 TEUs)
• CMA CGM Georg Forster (18,000 TEUs)
• CMA CGM Zheng He (18,000 TEUs)
• CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin (18,000 TEUs)
• CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery (20,800 TEUs)
• CMA CGM Jacques Saadé (23,112 TEUs); flagship and largest French-flagged container ship as of 2023

Sponsoring

Since 2022, CMA CGM is the main sponsor of Olympique Marseille, the major football club of the city where the company is headquartered.[65]

In July 2025, CMA CGM became the co-title sponsor of the Decathlon cycling team. The team will compete as Decathlon–CMA CGM from 1 January 2026.[66]

Accidents and incidents

On April 4, 2008, pirates seized the CMA CGM luxury cruise ship Le Ponant off the coast of Somalia.[67]

CMA CGM and its affiliates have been implicated 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.[75] The company has since implemented tighter procedures for accepting shipments bound for Iran,[76] including scanning all containers destined for the country.[77] CMA CGM has also ceased exporting from Iranian ports since November 2011.[77]

• November 2009: South Africa seized arms traveling from North Korea by way of China. The seizure amounted to two containers filled with tank parts and other military equipment from North Korea, which included "gun sights, tracks and other spare parts for T-54 and T-55 tanks and other war material valued at an estimated $750,000." The military equipment was concealed in containers lined with sacks of rice and shipping documents identified the cargo as spare parts for a "bulldozer". According to the report, the containers were originally loaded in Dalian, China onto CMA CGM Musca, a UK-flagged container ship. The shipment was reportedly destined for Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo.[68][69]
• July 2009: The United Arab Emirates seized a shipment of weapons from North Korea destined for Iran. The shipment was made in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1874, which bans all North Korean Arms exports. The weapons, which included RPGs, detonators, ammunition, and rocket propellant, were shipped by a Bahamian-flagged vessel of ANL Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMA CGM.[70][71]
• October 2010: Nigerian authorities seized 13 shipping containers carrying illegal Iranian weaponry at Lagos' Apapa Port. The containers included 107 mm artillery rockets (Katyushas), explosives and rifle ammunition. The arms were to be shipped next to The Gambia, with the final destination of the cargo possibly the Gaza Strip. MV CMA CGM Everest originally picked up the containers from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. CMA CGM said it was the victim of a false cargo declaration, claiming the weapons were shipped in packages labeled as "glass wool and pallets of stone" and that the Iranian shipper "does not appear on any forbidden persons listing".[72]
• March 2011: Israeli forces intercepted the vessel Victoria in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, stating that it was carrying weapons by Iran via Syria. According to Israeli officials, the arms shipments included "roughly 2,500 mortar shells, nearly 75,000 bullets and six C-704 anti-ship missiles". Israel said the ultimate destination of the cargo was for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.[73] CMA CGM, which chartered the vessel, stated, "The ship's manifests do not show any cargo in contravention [of] international regulations, and we do not have any more information at this stage."[74]

See also

• List of largest container shipping companies

External links

• CMA-CGM
• CMA-CGM vessels list