CMA CGM chairman and CEO Rodolphe Saadé has warned that major changes to global supply chains are on the way as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
In a video message to the group’s customers and partners, he said that consumption and working habits would inevitably be changed by the crisis.
The needs of both customers and partners would no doubt change significantly in accordance with their field of activity and geographical location, he said. World trade patterns would be affected, and companies would need to rethink their supply chain models.
He argued that supply chains would nevertheless be more important than ever in the current “unprecedented context” but said that they would need to be reconfigured.
“In view of our dependence on globalisation, supply chains will need to be redesigned with more resilience,” he said. “They will need to be able to be quickly adapted to sharp fluctuations in supply and demand.”
He argued that digitalisation, which had played a key role in everyone’s lives during lockdown, would continue to have a major impact on logistics flows, as well as on interactions between people generally.
“We are no doubt heading towards a reorganisation of international exchanges with diversified sourcing for companies and the development of intra-regional exchanges,” he said.
He added that the transition towards cleaner energy sources would also need to be accelerated, as would the move towards more eco-friendly transport modes.
“The entire CMA CGM group would like to work more closely with you on these changes,” he said, “to rise together to the new challenges in transport and logistics, thereby building with you new models for a more equitable and resilient global trade.”
Marseilles-based CMA CGM currently ranks fourth among the world’s leading container shipping groups, behind APM-Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company and China’s COSCO group. According to latest figures from Alphaliner, its 2.66 million teu fleet represents 11.3% of current global container ship capacity.
Andrew Spurrier
European Correspondent
