CMA CGM Initiates Global Energy Coalition

Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the French container transportation and shipping company CMA CGM Group recommended that French President Emmanuel Macron initiate an international coalition for the energy transition of the transportation sector whose priority will be to develop a more competitive and less carbon-intensive energy source.

Rodolphe Saadé stressed the need to improve the cooperation of all those working on near-term solutions to replace fossil fuels in the transportation and logistics sectors.

The French President accepted to actively support this initiative, whose first forum could be held on the occasion of the World Conservation Congress which will be organized in Marseille in June 2020.

The “Eco-Energetic Transition of the Maritime Sector” project is formalized, led by the French Maritime Cluster, the ADEME (French Environment & Energy Management Agency), Bureau Veritas and CMA CGM, is a first step towards this future international partnership.

The aim is to carry out an inventory of available technologies and new developments in ship propulsion. The data collected will help guide and structure future work.

Rodolphe Saadé also announced the choice of Marseille-Fos as a strategic hub in the Mediterranean for the supply of LNG for its future 15,000-TEU vessels.

"As the first shipping company in the world to have chosen LNG to power its ultra-large container vessels, CMA CGM is at the heart of the development of a global LNG supply chain," he said.

In order to supply LNG to its future 15,000-TEU ships that will operate between Asia and the Mediterranean from 2021, Rodolphe Saadé made the choice of Marseille-Fos.

As the leading French port, Marseille-Fos thus reinforces its attractiveness by offering LNG bunkering solutions for the supply of ultra-large container vessels, following the examples of the major Northern European ports. This decision will perpetuate and develop the Marseille-Fos LNG activity, thus creating additional jobs.

By choosing Marseille-Fos, the CMA CGM Group reaffirms its strong commitment to the Marseille region and to the development of an increasingly eco-responsible freight transport offer from the historic cradle of the company.