French container ship giant CMA CGM announced it has signed an agreement with Container Finance Ltd Oy, pursuant to which it will acquire the Finnish container shipping and logistics business Containerships. The transaction remains subject to approval by the relevant authorities.
Containerships is an Intra-European Shortsea specialist with a strong presence in the Baltic market, Russia, Northern Europe, North Africa and Turkey, which is expected to strengthen CMA CGM’s intra-European offer, specially in North Europe and the Mediterranean.
Containerships will also take delivery of four LNG-fueled vessels between August 2018 and January 2019, in line with CMA CGM’s order of nine mega LNG-fueled boxships of 22,000 TEUs, delivered from 2020.
The acquisition of Containerships will strengthen even more the development strategy implemented by Rodolphe Saadé, CMA CGM Group’s Chairman and CEO, aimed at densifying the Group’s regional network.
This latest transaction is part of a wide-industry trend over the last years, with consolidation, whether through alliances or mergers and acquisitions, seen as an effective means for companies to boost market share and handle intensifying competition and persistent oversupply. A Moody’s report in late 2017 had indicated that this trend would continue apace in the container shipping industry through 2018.
In 2017, Danish Maersk Line, the world’s largest container ship company, acquired German Hamburg Süd. Together, the companies have a total container capacity of 4.15 million TEU and a 19.3% global fleet capacity share, with a combined fleet of 772 vessels, according to Alphaliner.
More recently, German giant Hapag-Lloyd completed integration of United Arab Shipping Company, becoming the world’s fifth-largest liner shipping company.
