France’s Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has inaugurated the new global headquarters of CEVA Logistics, now a subsidiary of the CMA CGM Group.
With the acquisition of CEVA Logistics in May 2019, the CMA CGM Group decided to transfer the headquarters from Switzerland to Marseille, France, and to consolidate all management teams and support functions. 170 employees of 25 different nationalities are already working at the CEVA Logistics headquarters, and another 30 are expected by the end of 2019.
The proximity to the Jacques Saadé Tower, the headquarters of the CMA CGM Group located in the same neighborhood, will promote synergies and the exchange of best practices, says CMA CGM.
The Region “Sud” confirmed its full support of CEVA Logistics by announcing 1.5 million Euros ($1.65 million) for new projects including:
• SmartFREIGHT: a solution with a unique online space to manage the complete life of shipments, in particular enabling instant pricing from origin to destination. This E-commerce platform will allow for more environmentally responsible transport. A partnership with start-ups housed in ZEBOX, the international start-ups incubator and accelerator created by Rodolphe Saadé, CEO of the CMA CGM Group, has been established to define the carbon impact of each type of transport and make it available to customers.
• Network optimization initiative piloted by the U.S. intermodal network. The purpose is to redefine, on the basis of current transport, the positioning adequacy of HUBS in the Americas using optimization algorithms. Initial analyses resulted in an optimization of nearly three percent, or approximately 150,000 miles per month.
The move to strengthen digitization at CEVA Logistics supports Saadé’s strategy to make CMA CGM a digital leader in the maritime transport and logistics industry.
As part of its Asian expansion, CEVA Logistics set up a new operation in Sri Lanka earlier this month. CEVA Sri Lanka will service clients in both the island nation and in the Maldives. From its headquarters in Colombo customers will be offered a full range of multi-modal services.
In August, CEVA Logistics opened a new facility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, doubling the size of its local operation. CEVA’s new facility is located close to the two cargo terminals of the country’s busiest airport Tan Son Nhat International and a short drive from the container port of Cat Lai.
CEVA has a long-established presence in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and the World Bank is predicting that Vietnamese economic growth will continue to be around 6.5 percent per annum in coming years, particularly as a result of the free trade agreements (FTAs) which Vietnam signed with the European Union and the U.S. in 2016. Vietnam’s remarkable development record along with its enhanced ability to connect with the world’s biggest economies, makes it an ideal import/export hub and a strategic destination for companies looking to build manufacturing facilities in Southeast Asia, says CEVA.
In June, June,CEVA Logistics and CMA CGM launched a new cross-border service for ocean freight containers used by customers across Thailand and Laos. The new combined ocean freight and cross-border trucking service enables importers to drop off their empty containers at a newly expanded CMA CGM container depot, operated by CEVA, outside the Laos capital, Vientiane. There is no need for an empty return leg where equipment would be previously unused and would have been sent back to the Thai port of Laem Chabang where it entered the country.
CEVA Logistics also opened an office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in May.
