Rodolphe Saadé has issued a video on the CMA CGM website outlining his vision of a more equitable and resilient supply chain in the future, post-coronavirus.
The chairman of the world’s fourth largest containerline said yesterday: “This crisis will no doubt change our consumer and working habits. It will impact world economic flows and will necessitate that we all rethink our supply chain models.”
Supply chains will need to be redesigned to be more resilient, Saadé said, adding that they would also need to be able to react better to sharp reductions in supply and demand.
“Digitalisation has become an integral part of our lives during lockdown and will continue to have a major impact both on logistics flows, as well as on interactions between us all,” Saadé said.
In the future, Saadé said goods would be sought from a greater range of suppliers with more manufacturing moving nearer to the end-consumer.
As part of its strategy during the coronavirus crisis CMA CGM has started sending ships via the Cape of Good Hope in both directions from and to Asia and Europe, giving the Suez Canal a miss, to soak up capacity during the downturn.
