CMA CGM in Xiamen new port project

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

29 Nov 2007

French shipping major CMA CGM Group has made its first Chinese port terminal investment by signing a joint venture agreement to develop and build a $307 million deep-water container port at Xiamen's port of Haicang. It will hold a 30% stake in the joint venture consortium along with the Xiamen Haicang Investment General Company and Hong Kong's New World Services Holding which specializes in port infrastructure. Officials are slated to finalize project details soon as they hope to bring the new terminal on-line by 2009. CMA CGM, the world's third largest shipping line, claims to be Xiamen's third biggest container shipping customer with an expected throughput of 280,000 TEUs this year.  This latest project is seen to strengthen CMA CGM's position there. Reports say that CMA CGM plans to make Xiamen its transshipment hub for its operations throughout southern China. CMA CGM officials have also said that other investments could follow in Tianjin and Shanghai which have been highlighted as strategic to the Group's northern and central China development. Industry players call CMA CGM a 'recognized China specialist', with 30 shipping services weekly out of China. CMA CGM officials expect its China traffic this year to hit some 2.5 million TEUs, representing 10% of the country's total deep sea export volumes.Although CMA CGM has stakes in 16 port terminal worldwide, in China its principal investment currently has been an 8% stake in China Rail Intermodal.China Rail Intermodal is a $1.6 billion project to construct and run a container rail transport network serving 18 terminals.