Monday, September 18, 2017

Shipping: "CMA CGM Confirms Nine Ship Order in Strong Q2 Results"

There have been rumors of the ship orders for months but this is the first time CMA CGM has acknowledged they are buying multiple copies of what will be the largest container ships in the world.
From Port Technology:

https://assets.porttechnology.org/images/made/images/uploads/news/CMA_CGM_MARCO_POLO_at_PORT_KELANG_592_392_84_c1.jpg

CMA CGM has confirmed its latest ship order of nine 22,000 TEU vessels after sharing impressive first half results for 2017, with a strong increase in shipping volumes driving revenue by 56.8% in comparison with Q2 2016 to reach US$ 5.55 billion.

Volumes carried by the world’s third-largest shipping line grew by 33.3% in comparison to Q2 2016, largely due to the integration of APL and the launch of Ocean Alliance.

The company also confirmed that its vessel capacity is only going to rise as an order for nine 22,000 TEU ships will see new vessels enter into service from the end of 2019 to “keep pace with market growth and the group's needs”.

CMA CGM said that it expects the newbuilds to further reduce unit transport costs, particularly on the Asia-Europe routes.

An increase in freight rates on most of the group's lines also led to a 12.5% increase in average revenues per container in the second quarter of 2017.
CMA CGM stated that the company has positioned itself as “the best performing player in the global container shipping market in terms of core EBIT margin” for Q1 of 2017.

The carrier reported a core EBIT margin of 8.9% to US$ 472 million, with APL contributing $137 million to the results after its acquisition a year ago....MORE

The Loadstar highlighted CMA CGM's bragging: "CMA CGM 'outperforms the industry' as Q2 profits hit $227m" and illustrated the story with a pic of  one of the shipper's current big boats, the Benjamin Franklin at 17, 859 TEU:
https://theloadstar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads//CMA-CGM-BENJAMIN-FRANKLIN-Copyright-Port-of-LA-680x0-c-default.jpg
 CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin

The newbuilds will surpass the OOCL and Maersk leviathans which run 21413(x3) and 20568(x4) TEU respectively.

The pic of big Ben reminds me I'd intended to embed this timelapse of a 30 day voyage, from Digg: