APL has increased its Q3 volume by almost 9.9% to 1.3 million TEUs in the first three months under the ownership of CMA CGM Group after more than 20 cooperations on new and enhanced services with the company.
APL and CMA CGM have maximised utilisation through initiatives including the cross-chartering of 19 vessels and more than 6,000 TEUs of containers being exchanged to save costs.
Cooperation between the two companies has seen the cost savings in wide-ranging areas, including terminal charges, ship management, equipment logistics as well as intermodal and vessel feeder services.
APL saw its operating margin improve by 40.2% per FEU from the same period in the previous year, with costs decreasing by 15.7% per FEU year-on-year, reflecting the progress made in APL’s continuous cost savings efforts and the significant operational synergies gained through its new parent company.
APL and CMA CGM cooperation:
- In the Latin America trade, APL now offers its customers direct access to the Caribbean through slot swaps on the Asian Caribbean Express (ACE) service
- In the Trans-Pacific where it has a leading position, APL has taken over the management of the USL business, a subsidiary within the CMA CGM Group, and as a result increased its book of business by more than 10%
- In Asia-Europe, APL re-entered the direct India–Northern Europe trade through the India Pakistan Europe (IPE) service
- In the Trans-Atlantic trade, APL now has access to the West Mediterranean to/from US East Coast market through the West-Med Service (WMS)
Singapore
APL will continue to be headquartered in Singapore as part of CMA CGM Group's commitment to enhance the country’s position as a key maritime hub and grow its container throughput volumes through its joint venture with PSA Singapore Terminals.
The CMA CGM-PSA Lion Terminal started operations on 22 July 2016 with the aim of growing from two to four berths by January 2017 and increase its capacity of 2 million TEUs. CMA CGM also moved its regional head office from Hong Kong to Singapore in July 2016. CMA CGM believes APL is well-positioned for growth as it remains focused on restoring profitability by pursuing top line growth and stringent cost management.
The positive growth will be welcomed by CMA CGM after it reported in November a net loss of US$268 million for its Q3 2016 results after another difficult period for the shipping industry.