French line braces for regional growth

CMA CGM is expanding its
presence in Africa and bracing
for substantial growth in
regional trade on the continent
in the medium to long term.
Jean-Philippe Thenoz, senior
vice president group agencies
network of the CMA CGM
Group, told clients and staff at
the opening of the company’s
new Southern, Eastern Africa
and Indian Ocean regional
office in Umhlanga last week
that the company anticipated
a shift in trade to regional
routes. CMA CGM had already
launched a new intra-African
service from Morocco to Dakar
two months ago, he said.
“Today we have got about
27 direct services to Africa
from Asia, Europe, the
Mediterranean, India, the
Middle East and the Americas,”
he said.
“We believe trade will
become a lot more regional and
less east/west
as in the past
two decades
and we want
to go on with
this cargo
movement.
We intend to
strengthen our
presence on
the continent’s
maritime
routes but also regarding
inland services,” he said.
Thenoz said the new regional
office, which supervises 29
agencies in the geographic
area, was a “big symbol” of the
company’s growing presence on
the continent.
CMA CGM Southern,
Eastern Africa and Indian
Ocean regional director Agnès
Carpentier-Lemonnier said the
company had moved to larger
premises to
make way for
the planned
growth.
French
embassy of
France in
South Africa
head of the
regional
economic
service for
southern Africa, Serge Boscher,
said the move was a sign of
the group’s confidence in
the potential of the regional
transport corridor as one of 350
French companies based in the
country. “South Africa has a
great role in the SADC region
transport corridor,” he said.
“French companies think
long term and are very focused
on capacity building and
skills transfer. We can bring
technology and capacity
building to help social
transformation in the country,”
he said.
INSERT & CAPTION 1
Anticipating a shift
in trade to regional
routes.
– Jean-Philippe Thenoz
INSERT & CAPTION 2
Making way for
planned growth.
– Agnès Carpentier-Lemonnier