CMA CGM’s new CEO has vowed to be the top container carrier on all US trades. Rodolphe Saadé, son of the founder of the French line, took the reins as CEO last month. Yesterday in his first major speech since taking on the role, he spoke at TPM, the annual liner event organised by the Journal of Commerce in Long Beach, California.
“We want to be number one in the US on all trades, not only transpacific,” Saadé said. Combined with new acquisition APL, CMA CGM commands a market leading 14% of the transpacific, but the CEO was adamant that other tradelanes could be targeted for leadership too. Saadé also said that the APL brand would continue as it had a strong reasonance around the world, not least in the US where it was originally founded.
Not for the first time in recent months, Saadé warned the liner sector could experience further consolidation this year.
“Last year was a very tough one for carriers and I hope there will not be another Hanjin Shipping, but in order to avoid what happened with Hanjin there needs to be a more decent price war between carriers,” Saadé told delegates.
CMA CGM is set to form the Ocean Alliance on April 1 with partners OOCL, Evergreen and Cosco Shipping.
Also at yesterday’s TPM, regular Splash contributor Lars Jensen was on hand to sign copies of his new book Liner Shipping 2025 – How to survive and thrive. Jensen’s book proved a hit at the show with a long queue waiting to snap up his tome on the coming years for the liner trades. Splash readers can buy the book by clicking this Amazon link.
