CMA CGM TARGETS U.S. TRADES, ADDS CAPACITY

CMA CGM TARGETS U.S. TRADES, ADDS CAPACITY    The expansion-minded French shipping line CMA CGM expects to increase its volume of U.S. import and exports cargoes by 26 percent this year, as it prepares to launch three transpacific services.
   The carrier’s additional capacity in the Pacific will increase the proportion of its U.S. import and export carryings to about 20 percent of its worldwide total.
   The French carrier has held a small share of the transpacific market. But it will start another two Pacific services in the next few weeks and a third, larger one next year.
   In May, CMA CGM and P&O Nedlloyd are launching a direct, joint Asia/U.S. Gulf weekly service with eight vessels of about 2,400 TEU capacities.
   Rodolphe Saade, executive vice president in charge of U.S. trades, said CMA CGM and China Shipping Container Lines will also start in June a weekly China/Korea/Japan/U.S. West Coast service, called “Jade Express.” Using five 2,500-TEU vessels, the joint service will call at Xingang, Dalian, Qingdao, Busan, Kobe, Los Angeles and Xingang again.
   He confirmed CMA CGM and Mediterranean Shipping Co. in 2004 would launch a joint transpacific service with five ships of about 8,000 TEUs.
   “CMA CGM, with MSC, will be the first shipowner to use ships of 8,000 TEUs on the transpacific,” Saade said. He added the service would replace capacity already deployed by the two shipping lines in separate services.
   Jacques Saade, chairman of CMA CGM, said he expects the upsizing of containerships to reach an economic limit.
   “Personally, I believe that we will go to 10,000-11,000 (TEUs), but we will not go further,” he said. He highlighted that feeder costs for very large ships now exceed the cost of the mothership. “We have reached an anomaly,” Saade said.
   Commenting on conditions for the renewal of service contracts on May 1, Rodolphe Saade said he is confident CMA CGM would obtain the full rate increases of $700 to $900 per 40-foot container requested by carriers of the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement.
   Saade estimates average all-in rates from Hong Kong to Los Angeles will now amount to $2,200-$2,300 per container.
   In 2002, revenue from U.S. markets at CMA CGM totaled more than 500 million euro ($520 million).
   In a separate development, CMA CGM will start an additional service between Southeast Asia and Europe in June. This will bring the number of Asia/Europe services of the carrier to 11.