The French shipping company is reportedly in talks to buy a European feeder line.
CMA CGM said it moved record amounts of cargo and had strong growth in net income in the third quarter.
CMA had profit of $201 million in the third quarter of this year, nearly three times the $70 million earned in the third quarter of 2013. Core earnings before interest and taxes (excluding asset transfer and depreciation) were $248 million in the quarter, an 8.6-percent decline from the $271 million reported in the third quarter of last year.
The world’s third largest container shipping company had a revenue of $4.368 billion during the third quarter of 2014, compared with $4.105 billion in the third quarter of 2013.
There were reports in several newspapers Monday including Lloyd’s List and the Wall Street Journal
that CMA CGM is in discussions to
acquire
the feeder carrier Oldenburg-Portugiesische Dampfschiffs-Rhederei (OPDR), which is part of the Schulte Group.
OPDR operates between North Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands and North Africa. It has a fleet of five owned and three chartered containerships as well as two owned container/roll-on, roll-off ships.
Marseilles-based CMA CGM said it transported 3.2 million TEUs in the third quarter, 8.3-percent more than the 2.9 million TEUs transported in the third quarter of 2013. The capacity of its fleet grew 5 percent during the year to 1.637 million TEUs on 443 ships as of Sept. 30. But the carrier said average revenue per TEU decreased by 1.8 percent over the period.
“Carried volumes have reached their highest level over the group’s history thanks to the lines deployed in high-growth areas and to the strength of the services offered on the main markets,” the company said. It highlighted trades in:
• Asia-Europe, where steady growth has been recorded
• Intra-Asia and Oceania, where it operates through subsidiaries ANL and CNC Line.
• Africa, where it says it has “continued the development of its maritime and intermodal activities” by expanding its service offering, and has opened new land corridors under the CMA CGM and DELMAS brands
The company also said it is seeing growth in reefer transport and noted it recently purchased 7,000 new reefer containers, and seeks to carry one million reefers in 2015.
The company said it has cut operating-costs-per-TEU slightly, by 0.4 percent, with bunker-consumption-per-TEU falling 3.4 percent in the third quarter of this year, when compared to the the third quarter of 2013.
The company said the reduction in fuel use “mainly results from higher vessel-filling factors and continued energy-efficiency efforts” such as a program to modify bulbous bows on ships that are slow-steaming. The company has modified 15 ships and plans to modify 10 more.
During the third quarter, the company took delivery of two 9,400-TEU ships, part of a series of 28 similar 9,400-TEU ships that are “designed, in particular, to adapt the group’s fleet to the widening of the Panama canal, and will feature an unequaled number of reefer plugs for vessels of this size. Four other vessels of this size are expected to be delivered by the end of this year.”
CMA CGM will also take delivery of six vessels, with a capacity of 18,000 TEUs, in 2015.
The carrier said its alliance agreement with China Shipping and United Arab Shipping Company, announced in September, will be launched early next year.
