Revenue and EBITDA beat expectations, but new fuel surcharges and Gulf tensions add uncertainty for carriers and shippers alike.<\/p>\n
Paris, July 28 \u2013 the French shipping group CMA CGM said that demand, which in the second quarter exceeded expectations, is expected to remain strong and at a level into the third quarter, despite regional conflicts and uncertainty about tariffs in the United States.<\/p>\n
Financial results and operating dynamics<\/p>\n
Group revenue rose to $15.69 billion from $13.17 billion for the same period of the previous year, while EBITDA jumped to $2.99 billion from $2.28 billion.
\nCMA CGM\u2019s handled volume rose just over 6% in the first five months of the year, outpacing the global container shipping market, which rose 4.7%, according to chief financial officer Ramon Fernandez.<\/p>\n
Demand, supporting factors and freight rates<\/p>\n
Demand grew on the back of inventory replenishment, steady consumption and investment, as well as customers\u2019 pre-orders amid concerns about supply-chain disruptions and US tariffs, the management explained.<\/p>\n
Operational strategy and prospects<\/p>\n
The group had previously anticipated a slowdown in container shipping in 2026 after a strong 2025.<\/p>\n
Volume growth and more stable freight rates helped to partly offset costs associated with vessel idling, higher insurance premiums and reduced volumes on services in the Persian Gulf, according to management.<\/p>\n
CMA CGM, controlled by the Saade family, increased shipping capacity by 9% in this quarter, launched new services and relied on its terminals and logistics network to reroute cargo during supply disruptions.<\/p>\n
Freight rates for the next 6\u201318 months remain difficult to forecast due to the introduction of new ships into the market; carriers, where possible, may slow the movement of ships, stop them or decommission aging vessels to better manage capacity.<\/p>\n
Last week CMA CGM announced an emergency fuel surcharge that will take effect on August 1 in response to the renewed escalation of conflicts in the Hormuz Strait.<\/p>\n
There are still eight CMA CGM ships in the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n
In the current geopolitical climate the company continues to focus on balancing volume growth with cost control, expecting that demand and freight rates will remain key factors in the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Revenue and EBITDA beat expectations, but new fuel surcharges and Gulf tensions add uncertainty for carriers and shippers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13062],"tags":[2213,36540,36541,19042,36542,6,36543],"class_list":["post-58235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cma-cgm","tag-cma-cgm","tag-cma-cgm-container-shipping-demand-freight-rates-fuel-surcharge-persian-gulf-tensions","tag-container-shipping-demand","tag-freight-rates","tag-fuel-surcharge","tag-news","tag-persian-gulf-tensions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}