SIMIC

CMA CGM's average revenue per box in the second quarter rose 59.1 per cent to $1,757 over the same period in 2021, the company said.

The Marseilles-based carrier noted the year-ago figures were depressed by the pandemic-linked downturn in demand in the second quarter of 2020.

CMA CGM's CEVA Logistics unit saw second-quarter EBITDA increase 34.7 per cent year on year to $210 million, on revenue that rose 40.3 per cent to $2.4 billion.

"The strong rebound of the global economy has resulted in unprecedented demand for transportation and logistics services," said CMA CGM chairman and CEO Rodolphe Saade.

"While pressure on global supply chains is likely to persist, the group's strong performance enables us to accelerate our logistics transformation and our investments in industrial assets," he said.

Since the start of 2021, the container line said it has added eight newbuild vessels to its fleet, including the last five of nine liquefied natural gas-powered, 23,000-TEUers on the Asia-North Europe trade. It has also chartered a 15,000-TEU ship and 15 second-hand units on the trade.

CMA CGM said it has increased its container fleet by 13 per cent over the past year, an addition of more than 520,000 boxes, and plans to add a fifth air freighter by the end of the year to its existing fleet of four Airbus A330-200Fs, with more equipment to come in 2022.

"The group will continue to invest in reinforcing and upgrading its shipping and logistics network," the company said.

CMA CGM also warned shippers that Covid supply chain disruptions, from stalled factory production in southern Vietnam to port and inland intermodal congestion in the US, will continue till the end of the year.

"Constraints on effective container shipping capacity for the transport of consumer goods, experienced since the summer of 2020, are expected to continue until the first half of 2022," said the CMA CGM press release.