Container Shipping Group Inaugurates Latest Vessel and Expands Freight and Logistics Services

FRANCE – CAMEROON – News from shipping line CMA CGM this week as the container giant launches a logistics platform in Africa as well as announcing the maiden voyage for the latest of its new River series of box freight vessels.

First the inauguration of the logistics facility, the CMA CGM Cameroon Container Terminal, henceforth known as the 3CTC Terminal, which actually opened for business last month with a 25 year concession. Covering two hectares in a strategic area between the town of Douala and the port, CMA CGM says it offers its clients a complete range of logistics solutions, including container storage in a 1,200 square metre secured area and overland transport options throughout Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic.

The French line’s vessels call at Douala twice a week, offering Cameroon shippers import and export solutions around the entire world with CMA CGM insisting it has the ambition to become a big player in Cameroon’s development, today more than ever. The group has worked in sub-Saharan Africa, where it currently has 1,300 employees working in 72 offices, since 2001, and offers 27 direct maritime services joining the continent to the rest of the world.

The 3CTC platform is part of the group’s development strategy, which together with CMA CGM Inland Services (CCIS), last year saw the opening of a logistics facility in Dakar, Senegal and so far the development of 14 terrestrial hubs, creating transport corridors between land locked and coastal countries. Rodolphe Saadé, Vice Chairman of the CMA CGM group observed:

“This inauguration shows our determination to reinforce our presence in Africa and to develop both our inland and logistics activities there. It also confirms our desire to become a major player in Cameroon’s economic growth.”

Last Friday (February 20) saw the 7th and latest addition to the River Class of vessels to come into service undertake her maiden voyage when the CMA CGM Rhone sailed from China. The chartered vessel sailing under the Maltese flag, it is the 4th vessel of this class built at the Chinese construction site DSIC (Dalian, PRC) and delivered to the French operator. In common with her sisters the ship possesses all the latest energy saving and pollution reducing technology and, once again, the presence of 1,458 forty foot reefer plugs from her overall capacity of 9,365 TEU shows CMA CGM’s intention to capture a share of the perishables market.

The ship takes her place on the Bosphorus Express (BEX) service with a rotation:

Dalian, Tianjin, Kwangyang, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Chiwan, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Izmit, Istanbul Ambarli, Constanza, Odessa, Ilyichevsk, Port Said, Port Kelang, Singapore, and Dalian.