CMA CGM completes the acquisition of Containerships
The CMA CGM Group, a leading worldwide shipping Group, has completed yesterday the acquisition of Containerships, a container-transportation and logistics company. The European Commission authorized this transaction on October 22nd. Containerships, which specializes in the intra-European market, will complement CMA CGM’s service offering, the Group said on Wednesday.
Containerships, a European door-to-door specialist
Founded in 1966, Containerships is a Finnish company specialized in Intra-European containerized trade with 690 employees. Containerships offers its clients a complete range of high-quality services, as well as logistics solutions through all types of transportation (sea, road, rail and barge).
Reinforcement of CMA CGM’s intra-European offer
With the acquisition of Containerships, the Group strengthens its position as a major player in intra-European transport, in particular through the combination of the geographical areas covered by Containerships and MacAndrews: MacAndrews, recently merged with OPDR, covers Great Britain, Poland, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain (including the Canary Islands), Portugal and Morocco, Containerships is present in the Baltic markets, Russia, Northern Europe, North Africa and Turkey.
Customers of the CMA CGM Group’s intra-European activity will now benefit from the expertise of 2,700 employees located in 130 offices. In 2017, 2.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) were transported on CMA CGM Group's and Containerships’ intra-European lines.
CMA CGM pursues its strategy in intra-regional markets
The acquisition of Containerships is part of the CMA CGM Group's strategy aimed at densifying its regional network, which began in 2002 with the acquisition of MacAndrews. CMA CGM is thus strengthening its intra-regional offer, a rapidly expanding market in which the Group is already present through its subsidiaries:
- CNC Line, one of the leaders in the Intra-Asia market;
- Mercosul, a leader in the domestic container transport market in Brazil
- Sofrana, a major player in regional trade in the Pacific Islands;
- MacAndrews, specialist in intra-European door-to-door multimodal solutions.
- An environmentally conscious Group committed to ecological transition
With Containerships, CMA CGM is also pursuing its strategy towards the protection of the environment with the upcoming entry into Containerships’ fleet of four 1,400 TEU vessels powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). These vessels will be followed, from 2020 onwards, by the entry into service of the nine 22,000 TEU and two 1,400 TEU container ships ordered by the CMA CGM Group. In addition, Containerships has a fleet of LNG-powered trucks, enabling the CMA CGM Group to offer LNG throughout the transport cycle.