Compagnie maritime d'affrètement - Compagnie générale maritime, commonly known as CMA CGM is a French ocean transportation and logistics company. Headquartered in Marseille, France, company operations include maritime transportation, port operation, supply chain management, and warehousing.
The company has a presence in 160 countries with 400 offices, 750 warehouses, 155,000 employees, and a fleet of 593 vessels. CMA CGM serves 420 of the world's 521 commercial ports and operates 257 shipping lines. CMA CGM is the third-largest container shipping company in the world. For the 2024 fiscal year, the company reported an annual revenue of US$55.48 billion.
The company was founded in 1978 by Jacques Saadé, and the name is an acronym derived from its two predecessor companies, Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement (CMA) and Compagnie Générale Maritime (CGM), which translate to "Maritime Freighting Company" and "General Maritime Company", respectively.
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History
The history of CMA CGM can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century, when two major French shipping lines were created, respectively Messageries Maritimes (MM) in 1851 and Compagnie Générale Maritime (CGM) in 1855, soon renamed Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in 1861. Both companies were created partly with the backing of the French State, through the award of mail contracts to various destinations, French colonies and overseas territories as well as foreign countries. After the two World Wars, the two companies became "State owned corporations of the competitive sector" (Entreprise publique du secteur concurrentiel), i.e., companies that, while owned by the State, were run as private for-profit businesses operating in competitive markets. The French government, under President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, progressively merged the two companies between 1974 and 1977 to form Compagnie Générale Maritime, which was still owned by the French government and still run as a competitive business, although sometimes subject to political pressure, for instance on the selection of shipyards to build new ships.
Compagnie Générale Maritime (CGM) operated as such from 1974 to 1996 when it was privatized by the French state under President Chirac and Prime Minister Alain Juppé. During these 22 years it operated freight and container liner services in various global trade lanes, as well as a fleet of dry bulk ships, and a few large oil tankers and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tankers, with headquarters located in Paris' western suburbs, first in Paris-La Defense, then in close by Suresnes.
The CGM liner services, mostly containerized but also operating a significant fleet of "Con-Ro" vessels able to load roll-on/roll-off cargoes, were re-structured from the two parent companies' main trade lanes, i.e. Western trade lanes (Americas) for Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT) and Eastern trade lanes (Asia, East Africa, Pacific, plus Eastern South America) for Messageries Maritimes (MM). After the merger and re-structure, CGM's liner services were managed in four distinct Trade Divisions, North America & Far East (AMNEO, for Amérique du Nord & Extrême Orient) which also managed the bulk and tanker fleets, South America & Caribbean (AMLAT), Pacific & Indian Ocean (PACOI) and Short Sea Trades (Cabotage).
Separately, Jacques Saadé had created CMA in 1978 as an intra-Mediterranean liner service operator, based in Marseille. In 1996, CGM was privatized and sold to Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement (CMA) to form CMA CGM.
Ownership
CMA CGM is 73% owned by Rodolphe Saadé and his family through Merit France SAS. The Turkish family-owned company Yildirim Holding has a 24% stake and French public sector investment bank Bpifrance has a 3% holding.
Subsidiaries
Maritime activities
Australian National Line (ANL) (specializes in Australia, New Zealand, Oceania and Asia container transportation)
Compagnie Marocaine de Navigation (Comanav) (passenger ferry and container services from Morocco to Europe)
Cheng Lie Navigation Corp. (CNC Line) (specializes in Intra-Asia container transportation)
Mercosul Line (specializes on the East Coast of South America container transportation)
Containerships (specializes in Intra-European container transportation)
American President Lines (APL) (Singapore-based container line)
Terminal activities
CMA Terminals Holding
Terminal Link - container terminals developer and operator, ranked N°12 worldwide
Intermodal activities and logistics
Progeco (container: sales, leasing & repairing)
CMA CGM Logistics
Freightliner (UK intermodal operator)
Rail Link (multimodal rail transport)
River Shuttle Containers (Rhône – Saône axis containerised river transportation)
Kingston Freeport Terminal LTD (Jamaican Transhipment Hub)
Support activities
CMA Ships (a wholly owned subsidiary managing all fleet-related operations)
Air services
CMA CGM Air Cargo, active since February 2021, operates a total of 4 Airbus A330-200Fs and 2 Boeing 777Fs.
CMA Média
La Provence (news media)
Corse-Matin (news media)
La Tribune (news media)
RMC BFM (Radio, television, magazines)
Brut (digital media)
Transportation of Passengers
La Méridionale (Operates four ferries (Pelagos, Kalliste, Piana, and Girolata) with weekly sailings to Corsica and crossings between Marseille and Morocco.)
Brittany Ferries: (The group also holds an equity stake in this entity.)
Joint ventures
CMA Systems, a business entity in partnership with IBM involving development of new technologies like the cloud computing.
Terminal Link, a joint venture between CMA CGM (51%) and China Merchants Port (49%).
5-year partnership with startup Mistral AI beginning in 2025 and focusing on artificial intelligence initiatives for customer service in shipping and logistics and factchecking for CMA CGM's media businesses. As part of the deal, CMA CGM will invest up to €100 million with Mistral.
Fleet
In 2023, CMA CGM's fleet included:
593 vessels
4,500,000 container TEUs
600,000 reefer container TEUs
The fleet has 200 maritime services and calls at more than 420 ports in 160 countries. There are 521 commercial ports in the world at the moment.
Some emblematic group's vessels are:
CMA CGM Jules Verne (16,020 TEUs) was christened in June 2013 by the French President François Hollande. At that time, this vessel sailing under the French flag was the world's biggest container ship.
CMA CGM Marco Polo (16,020 TEUs)
CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt (16,020 TEUs)
CMA CGM Kerguelen (18,000 TEUs)
CMA CGM Vasco de Gama (18,000 TEUs)
CMA CGM Bougainville (18,000 TEUs)
CMA CGM Georg Forster (18,000 TEUs)
CMA CGM Zheng He (18,000 TEUs)
CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin (18,000 TEUs)
CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery (20,800 TEUs)
CMA CGM Jacques Saadé (23,112 TEUs); flagship and largest French-flagged container ship as of 2023
Sponsoring
Since 2022, CMA CGM is the main sponsor of Olympique Marseille, the major football club of the city where the company is headquartered.
In July 2025, CMA CGM became the co-title sponsor of the Decathlon cycling team. The team will compete as Decathlon–CMA CGM from 1 January 2026.
Accidents and incidents
On April 4, 2008, pirates seized the CMA CGM luxury cruise ship Le Ponant off the coast of Somalia.
CMA CGM and its affiliates have been implicated in various arms-shipping incidents.
November 2009: South Africa seized arms traveling from North Korea by way of China. The seizure amounted to two containers filled with tank parts and other military equipment from North Korea, which included "gun sights, tracks and other spare parts for T-54 and T-55 tanks and other war material valued at an estimated $750,000." The military equipment was concealed in containers lined with sacks of rice and shipping documents identified the cargo as spare parts for a "bulldozer". According to the report, the containers were originally loaded in Dalian, China onto CMA CGM Musca, a UK-flagged container ship. The shipment was reportedly destined for Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo.
July 2009: The United Arab Emirates seized a shipment of weapons from North Korea destined for Iran. The shipment was made in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1874, which bans all North Korean Arms exports. The weapons, which included RPGs, detonators, ammunition, and rocket propellant, were shipped by a Bahamian-flagged vessel of ANL Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMA CGM.
October 2010: Nigerian authorities seized 13 shipping containers carrying illegal Iranian weaponry at Lagos' Apapa Port. The containers included 107 mm artillery rockets (Katyushas), explosives and rifle ammunition. The arms were to be shipped next to The Gambia, with the final destination of the cargo possibly the Gaza Strip. MV CMA CGM Everest originally picked up the containers from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. CMA CGM said it was the victim of a false cargo declaration, claiming the weapons were shipped in packages labeled as "glass wool and pallets of stone" and that the Iranian shipper "does not appear on any forbidden persons listing".
March 2011: Israeli forces intercepted the vessel Victoria in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, stating that it was carrying weapons by Iran via Syria. According to Israeli officials, the arms shipments included "roughly 2,500 mortar shells, nearly 75,000 bullets and six C-704 anti-ship missiles". Israel said the ultimate destination of the cargo was for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. CMA CGM, which chartered the vessel, stated, "The ship's manifests do not show any cargo in contravention [of] international regulations, and we do not have any more information at this stage."
CMA CGM Centaurus
On 4 May 2017, the container ship CMA CGM Centaurus made heavy contact with the quay and two shore cranes while under pilotage during its arrival at Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates. The accident resulted in the collapse of a shore crane and 10 injuries to shore personnel.
CMA CGM Washington
On 20 January 2018, the container ship CMA CGM Washington was on-route to Los Angeles, US, from Xiamen, China, when it experienced heavy waves in the North Pacific Ocean. The crew discovered that three bays, 54, 58 and 18, collapsed, which led to the loss of 137 containers and damage of another 85.
CMA CGM Norma
On 24 December 2018, the container ship CMA CGM Norma was involved in a collision with the China-flagged general cargo ship Yusheng366 in the waters south of Hong Kong. All the crew from Yusheng366 were rescued as they abandoned ship before she sank, while CMA CGM Norma suffered minor damages.
CMA CGM Rabelais
On 6 April 2022, a fire broke out in a container on the ship's deck on the 6,552 TEU CMA CGM Rabelais. The vessel was en route to Nhava Sheva, India, after departing Singapore and was navigating the Malacca Straits, some 100 km north-west of Port Klang, when the fire was discovered at about noon, local time.
A spokesperson for vessel owner Danaos Corporation, said the master had “immediately implemented firefighting protocols” and emphasised that "the fire is still burning, but it is under control.” One crew member was injured during the firefighting operations, when he slipped and fell, breaking some ribs.
APL Vanda
On 3 July 2022, the Singaporean-flagged container ship APL Vanda was on-route between Singapore and Suez as part of CMA CGM's Asia - North-Europe Fal 3 service, when it lost 55 loaded containers in the Indian Ocean whilst the vessel was facing heavy weather, just before entry to the Gulf of Aden according to CMA CGM. No injury was reported and all crew members were safe.
The ship, which left Singapore on June 26, stopped on July 9 in Djibouti "to clear some damaged containers on deck before safely continuing its voyage."
CMA CGM Symi
On 25 November 2023, US defense officials reported that the ship was targeted in a suspected Iranian drone attack while in the Indian Ocean, en route from Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates to Port Klang, Malaysia. The ship has an Israeli owner and the incident happened a short time before the 2023 Gaza war ceasefire.