CMA CGM links Morocco ahead of fruit, vegetable export season

CMA CGM and its subsidiary are launching five maritime services between October and November 2015 to connect Morocco with the largest importers of this African country’s citrus fruits and vegetables during the export season.
The five new services will offer fourteen weekly departures from Morocco to top consumers in Rusia, North America, Europe, the

Middle East and Africa.
The port of Agadir will be served with three weekly calls serving Northern Europe and Russia, via the DUNKRUS, CISS and AGAX services.

Under the CMA CGM brand, the group will directly connect Morocco to France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands via:

• The  DUNKRUS service, which will start on October 27 with the following rotation: Agadir, Dunkirk, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Vlissingen, Le Havre, Rouen, Vigo, Tangier, Casablanca, Agadir;

• The AGAPOV service, which will start on October 29, and call at: Agadir, Port Vendres, Barcelona, Valencia, Casablanca, Agadir, Port Vendres, Algeciras, Tangiers, Ghazaouet, Casablanca and Agadir.
According to the company, OPDR will link Morocco to Spain and Northern Europe via:

•The CISS service, starting on November 7. Its rotation will be: Agadir, Huelva, Setúbal, Tilbury, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Tilbury, Tenerife, Las Palmas, Agadir;

•The AGAX service, starting on October 15, with the following rotation: Agadir, Casablanca, Portsmouth, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Casablanca, Gibraltar, Seville, Las Palmas, Agadir

Meanwhile, France’s CMA CGM SA is in talks to build at least three container megaships, joining the race among the top container operators that already use such vessels to increase their market share on the world’s busiest trade routes.
The ships would be able to carry around 20,000 containers each and cost about $420 million in total.
CMA CGM, the third-largest container-shipping company by capacity, would deploy the vessels to move cargo between Asia and Europe, the world’s busiest ocean trade route. It would join its bigger competitors, Maersk Line of Denmark and Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company, which already use Triple-E-class ships.

Fully loaded, Triple-E’s cut the cost of moving a container across the oceans by around 25%, and industry executives say smaller
operators that can’t afford to buy such behemoths will increasingly lose market share on the biggest trade routes.

Last September, CMA CGM formed its own alliance with China Shipping Container Lines Company and Middle East shipping major United Arab Shipping Company called Ocean Three, which controls a 20% slice of all cargo between Asia and Europe and 13% and 7% across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, respectively.