CMA CGM’s Rodolphe Saadé Initiates an International Coalition for the Energy of Tomorrow

On the occasion of the French Maritime Economy Conference (Assises de l’Economie de la Mer), Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, recommended that French President Emmanuel Macron initiate an international coalition for the energy transition of the transportation sector whose priority will be to develop a more competitive and less carbon-intensive energy source.

Rodolphe Saadé also announced the choice of Marseille-Fos as a strategic hub in the Mediterranean for the supply of LNG for its future 15,000-TEU vessels. Finally, he shared with the French President his views of the future of the maritime industry.

Rodolphe Saadé stressed the need to improve the cooperation of all those working on near-term solutions to replace fossil fuels in the transportation and logistics sectors. The French President accepted to actively support this initiative, whose first forum could be held on the occasion of the World Conservation Congress which will be organized in Marseille in June 2020.

Formalized during the French Maritime Economy Conference, the “Eco-Energetic Transition of the Maritime Sector” project, led by the French Maritime Cluster, the ADEME (French Environment & Energy Management Agency), Bureau Veritas and CMA CGM, is a first step towards this future international partnership. The aim is to carry out an inventory of available technologies and new developments in ship propulsion. The data collected will help guide and structure future work.

CMA CGM chooses the port of Marseille-Fos for the bunkering of its future 15,000-TEU vessels. As the first shipping company in the world to have chosen LNG to power its ultra-large container vessels, CMA CGM is at the heart of the development of a global LNG supply chain. In order to supply LNG to its future 15,000-TEU ships that will operate between Asia and the Mediterranean from 2021, Rodolphe Saadé made the choice of Marseille-Fos.

During his discussions with the French President, Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, declared: “With the choice of liquefied natural gas, the CMA CGM Group is a pioneer in the energy transition of the maritime industry. To meet the challenges ahead, we must go even further and work together: maritime, air and land carriers, logisticians, energy companies and motorists, in Europe and around the world. With the support of the French President, France will launch a major global coalition for the energy of tomorrow.”