Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, a world leader in shipping and logistics, has signed two strategic agreements with Lei Fanpei, Chairman of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
On the occasion of these signatures, Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, declared: “Through this strategic partnership with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, we once again opt for LNG propulsion and we reinforce our efforts to develop ever more efficient and environmentally-friendly vessels.
“We thereby reassert our leading role in the energy transition of the shipping industry.”
Rodolphe Saadé thus signed an agreement for the order of ten new 15,000-TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) container ships. Measuring 366 metres long, they will be delivered from 2021 in replacement of ten other vessels and will be used on the Asia-Mediterranean lines.
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Designed to support the Group’s growth, these ships will further strengthen its competitiveness and will be equipped with the latest technologies for the protection of the environment.
The CMA CGM Group thus chose to power half of these newbuilds with liquefied natural gas (LNG), which allows for a significant reduction in CO2, sulphur, fine particles and nitrogen oxides emissions.
The five other vessels will be fitted with hybrid scrubbers, allowing for the elimination of sulphur and fine particles emissions.
Rodolphe Saadé and Lei Fanpei also signed an ambitious cooperation agreement to develop more efficient and environmentally-friendly vessels.
In November 2017, the Group announced an order for nine 22,000-TEU container ships powered by LNG, becoming the first shipping company in the world to choose this energy source for vessels of this size.
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