French shipping major CMA CGM will play a pivotal role in the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), the company said in a statement after the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with French President Emmanuel Macron to the group’s headquarters in Marseille on Wednesday.
As part of his state visit to France, both leaders were welcomed by Rodolphe Saade, Chairman and CEO of the CMA CGM Group, at the Group’s headquarters.
Discussions focused on the IMEC, which is a strategic trade route designed to enhance connectivity between India and Europe. The CMA CGM Group, as a French company and a global player in maritime, land, air, and logistics solutions, intends to actively contribute to this initiative, the statement said.
The IMEC project aims to enhance transit between Europe and India through integrated maritime and land infrastructure while also facilitating energy transport and telecommunications via a subsea cable. This strategic corridor will significantly boost trade between the European Union and the Middle East.
With a modern fleet adapted to alternative energy sources and key port hubs in India, the UAE, and the Mediterranean, CMA CGM will be a key contributor to the corridor’s efficiency. Additionally, a network of dry ports along the IMEC rail route—stretching from India through Saudi Arabia and the Middle East to Europe—will leverage the Group’s logistics expertise, reinforcing the economic and strategic vision of this alternative trade route.
By combining maritime flexibility with land connectivity, CMA CGM will play a vital role in the success of this transformative trade corridor., the statement said.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Interim Budget 2024-25 in Parliament on February 1, 2024, said that the IMEC is a strategic and economic game changer for India and others. She quoted the Prime Minister, saying that the corridor “will become the basis of world trade for hundreds of years to come, and history will remember that this corridor was initiated on Indian soil”.
For the project, a MoU was signed among Saudi Arabia, European Union, India, the UAE, France, Germany, Italy and the US. It will include two separate corridors — the east corridor connecting India to the Arabian Gulf and the northern corridor connecting the Arabian Gulf to Europe. It will also include railway projects to provide a reliable and cost-effective cross-border ship-to-rail transit network to supplement existing maritime and road transport routes enabling goods and services to transit between India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Europe.
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Long presence in India
With a presence in 160 countries through 400 offices, 750 warehouses, 160,000 employees and a wide fleet of 620 vessels, CMA CGM serves 420 of the world’s 521 commercial ports and operates more than 250 shipping lines.
In India, it has been in India for the last 34 years, with a workforce of nearly 17,000 employees. It connects the country to the rest of the world through 19 maritime services. It is also developing port infrastructure in India, with investments in terminals at Nhava Sheva Freeport (NSFT), near Mumbai, and Mundra Port.
CEVA Logistics, CMA CGM’s logistics subsidiary, operates across 105 sites in 31 Indian cities, managing around 900,000 sq m of warehouse space. The acquisition of Stellar VCS in 2023 strengthened CEVA Logistics’ role in India’s contract logistics sector, offering global expertise and innovative solutions to enhance operational efficiency.