CMA CGM Group celebrates 35th anniversary

35 years ago, on September 13th, 1978 in Marseilles, Jacques R. Saade founded CMA, Compagnie maritime daffretement, and launched the first service linking Marseilles, Livourne, Beirut and Latakia. His vision and intuition subsequently led him to extend the company's activities to Asia and the rest of the world.

Today, the CMA CGM Group present on every continent through its 650 agencies, employs 18,000 people worldwide and is ranked the third largest container shipping company in the world.

Jacques R. Saade witnessed the beginnings of container transport in the United States in the early 1960s whilst attending an internship, and he became convinced that containers were the future of international sea cargo transport. It was as a result of this realization that CMA was founded on September 13th, 1978 in Marseilles.

Operating at the beginning between Marseilles in France, Livourne in Italy, Beirut in Lebanon and Latakia in Syria, the group rapidly expanded its activities to the whole of the Mediterranean Basin.

Following his intuition again, in the 1980s Jacques R. Saade and CMA entered markets in Asia, which was to become the future epicenter of worldwide trade. The company opened agencies all over the region, especially in China from 1992.

The acquisition of CGM in 1996 represented a major step in the group`s development, which was followed by the acquisition of several regional shippers (ANL, CNC Line, Comanav, DELMAS, Mac Andrews and US Lines) offering the group global coverage.

As the culmination of its development strategy, the group opened its capital to the Yildirim Group in 2010 and to the FSI in 2013, in mandatory convertible bonds.

In just 35 years the CMA CGM Group has become a major player in international shipping. The company employs over 18,000 people through its 650 agencies spread over 150 countries.

Operating a fleet of 429 vessels the group is present on every continent and serves more than 400 of the world's 521 commercial ports. As a responsible leader, the group is engaged since 2003 in an ambitious environmental policy and has created a corporate foundation dedicated to children.

Marking the group's 35th birthday, the CMA CGM JULES VERNE, the company's flagship displaying exceptional dimensions, deviated from its route to make a call in Marseilles, where she was inaugurated by Fran is Hollande, President of the French Republic, on June 4th 2013. On this occasion, the French President congratulated Jacques R. Saade and the CMA CGM Group on their success. < Korea Shipping Gazette >