THE
head of French shipping giant CMA CGM says the future of the world's
fourth-largest container line will increasingly be built on e-commerce.
Chairman and chief Executive of CMA CGM,
Rodolphe Saade said in a recent interview that the shipping company is bringing the
logistics business it acquired last year more deeply into its operations as the
carrier takes on bigger trade volumes aimed at online consumers.
"Clients
like Amazon and Walmart are looking for one entity for all their shipment
needs," he said.
The
company has swapped out the management of Ceva Logistics AG, the big logistics
operator it acquired last year, and moved its headquarters from Switzerland to
the shipping company's base in Marseilles. Mr. Saade said the moves are aimed
at turning the loss-making Ceva profitable while embedding its inland distribution
specialties into the shipping line's own port-to-port operations.
CMA
CGM is seeing signs of changing distribution patterns in the recent container
import surge that hit US shores in the third quarter. "Amazon and Walmart are increasing
significantly their volumes coming out of Asia to the US. People don't go to
the malls with the pandemic, but they buy on the internet," he said.
"These clients are increasingly asking for warehousing and last-mile
services."
Shipping
executives and brokers estimate that up to a quarter of all container volume
heading into the US from across the Pacific in recent months has been destined
for e-commerce distribution centres and that demand continues to grow. CMA CGM
is one of the biggest operators on trans-Pacific container lanes.
The
company's logistics investments are part of a broader move in the maritime
sector.
Companies
including AP Moller-Maersk are investing in
warehousing, customs clearance and truck capacity to cater to the growing
demand. The Danish company said earlier this month that it will consolidate its
supply-chain services by having its logistics division absorb Damco, a separate
arm of the group that provides air and ocean freight forwarding, according to
the Wall Street Journal.
CMA
CGM is betting on Ceva to fulfil that part of the supply chain. The shipping line spent US$1.65 billion last year to buy the third-party
logistics operator. The loss-making company is a top-10 global freight
forwarder in terms of revenue, but lags behind fellow European firms DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Supply Chain, Kuehne + Nagel
International AG and Schenker AG.
Mr.
Saade said he expects Ceva, which lost $1 million in the second quarter, to
show a profit next year. The CMA CGM group, which includes the main shipping
arm with a fleet of 500 ships, made a profit of $136 million in the quarter,
after a $109 million loss last year.
"This
year our profit is coming from shipping," Mr. Saade said. "Tomorrow,
most probably it will be divided between shipping and inland logistics, maybe
half and half, over the next five years."
Source
: HKSG.
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