We kinda suspected that. With the slowdown in world trade, CMA CGM, which had been the most profitable company in France in 2022 (24.9 billion dollars in profits) will not repeat this performance this year. In the first half of the year, it divided its profits by five, to 3.3 billion dollars in net income, against 14.7 billion at the same time last year. Beware, the world’s third largest shipowner is not doing badly: in the first half of the year, it still made $3.3 billion in profits. Nothing to do with the pre-Covid situation: in 2019, it had lost $152 million over the same period.
And, by dint of multiplying acquisitions (port terminals, Gefco, Ingram Micro CLS, Colis Privé, etc.), the Marseilles group has changed in size. In the first half, it achieved a turnover of 25 billion dollars against 15.1 billion in 2019, the year before Covid. Simply, it no longer has the stratospheric results it displayed during the pandemic when shipping costs soared. “As expected, our industry continued to normalize in the second quarter,” said Rodolphe Saade, CEO of CMA CGM, soberly in a press release. A few months ago, he had been more forthcoming on the subject: “After two exceptional years, our industry has entered a phase of normalization linked to the slowdown in global growth, inflation and a phenomenon of destocking which is pursues all over the world”, he underlined then.
As a result, the group is marking time this year: sales, Ebitda, net income… all its indicators are down dramatically in the first half compared to last year. Thus, its turnover fell by more than 33% to 25 billion dollars. The decline even intensified in the second quarter (-36.9%).
And the slide would have been more spectacular if CMA CGM had not accentuated its diversification. In the second quarter, its historical activity, the transport of goods by container ship, fell by 47.9% when logistics, less subject to jolts, remained stable. This second pole should be further strengthened: CMA CGM reached an agreement with Bolloré a few weeks ago to buy back its Bolloré Logistics division. the shipowner will pay 4.7 billion euros to acquire this company which last year achieved an Ebitda of 437 million euros for a turnover of 7.1 billion euros). The time to have the authorizations of all the competition authorities concerned, the king of container ships should control Bolloré Logistics at the earliest at the end of the year. This will allow it to become the fifth logistician in the world whereas it is only the sixth today.
In the meantime, CMA CGM does not expect a rebound in its activity in the second half. According to experts, the global economy is expected to experience very moderate growth. And the many deliveries of container ships expected by the end of the year do not anticipate a rise in maritime transport prices. Nothing to worry too much about CMA CGM, which over the past two years has pocketed more than forty billion dollars in profits.