2023-06-02 13:27:58
Transport maritime
Published on :
Last update : 02.06.2023
Par : AFP
CMA CGM has finalized the purchase from the Stef de La Méridionale group, an armament company which will be integrated into a new division with the group’s participation in Brittany Ferries and car shipping.
La Méridionale, which owns four ro-pax ships carrying freight and passengers, provides rotations within the framework of a public service delegation between Marseille and Corsica (Ajaccio and Porto-Vecchio) with a 10% market share, as well as between Marseille and the Moroccan port of Tangier. Loss-making since 2019, La Méridionale employs 600 people, including 500 seafarers.
Two new ships and a new branch
“We are now launching a call for tenders for the construction of two ro-pax ships to serve Corsica”, indicated its new boss Jean-Emmanuel Sauvée. According to him, these ships will be “very virtuous from an environmental point of view, (…) with a very interesting propulsion system (LNG with the possibility of being able to operate on e-methane, a synthetic methane) and zero emission during stopovers”.
“The internationalization of La Méridionale has not been successful at this stage. It is up to us to imagine a new project (…) to rethink the destinations to Morocco”, he noted.
La Méridionale will be attached within CMA CGM to a new division called “Specialized maritime transport”, and managed by Jean-Emmanuel Sauvée, with the 12% of the group in the Breton company Brittany Ferries and its 35% in the start-up from Nantes, Neoline, which is developing a sailing freighter.
This division will also include the new ro-ro transport activity for new vehicles created from Gefco, a specialist in automotive logistics acquired last year. “It’s a new market in France that we are creating. (…) There has been no shipowner for twenty years in this sector”, noted Jean-Emmanuel Sauvée.
1685727904
#CMA #CGM #finalizes #takeover #Méridionale #creates #specialized #maritime #transport #division
