CMA CGM recorded a net profit of 7.6 billion dollars in the second quarter, more than double in a year in a context of persistent tensions in the merchandise circuits, the French group announced on Friday.
This result was obtained on a turnover of more than 57% in one year, to 19,480 million dollars, said the shipowner and logistics, but warned against a deterioration in the prospects for world trade.
In six months, the Marseille group will have raised 14.8 billion dollars, after a record 17.9 billion in all of 2021. This has earned it a place, along with energy companies, among the targets of a possible tax on “super profits”, demanded by the left opposition in France.
gestures
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne indicated last week that she did not close the door to this taxation, but that she preferred that each company be able to “lower prices for the consumer and give purchasing power to its employees.”
CMA CGM has made several gestures in recent months, including a further reduction of its rates on August 1 with a reduction of its freight rates of 750 euros per 40-foot container to mainland France and the Overseas Territories, that is to say , up to 25% of their prices, instead of the previously planned 500 euros.
The company had also announced a reduction of 100 euros per 40-foot container for all French exports. She did not reveal a new measure on Friday.
A less bright future
CMA CGM benefited, like the entire sector, from the sharp increase in freight prices due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the disruption of supply chains.
But on Friday, she hinted that the future might not be so bright for her.
Already suffering from “the congestion that affects port terminals and land logistics chains, which translates into longer transit times for ships”, the group saw how its transported volumes (measured in TEUs, “twenty equivalent feet”, sector benchmark unit) fell 1.3% year-on-year in the second quarter to 5.6 million, it said in a statement.
CMA CGM said it was “particularly attentive to the evolution of the current geopolitical situation”, referring to “the sharp rise in the cost of energy, combined with the inflation in the price of many raw materials” that “could worsen the economic situation and the growth prospects for world trade.
Source: BFM TV
