Thanks to their record profits, the maritime transport giants are increasing their acquisitions in the logistics sector and accelerating their diversification into air and land. The Danish carrier AP Moller-Maersk announced on Wednesday (December 22) that it had concluded the takeover, for 3.6 billion dollars (nearly 3.2 billion euros), of the Chinese logistics specialist LF Logistics, which owns 223 warehouses and a fleet of trucks throughout Asia.
Soren Skou, CEO of Maersk, praised “An important step” to become a “Global integrator of container logistics”. Danish shipowner wants to control end-to-end supply chain and offer delivery services ” door to door “, between the factory and the buyer, by strengthening its territorial network in an Asian region which has become the center of gravity of the world economy. While diversifying its modes of transport.
In November, he announced his intention to buy the German freight forwarder specializing in air freight Senator International for more than $ 644 million, and to expand the aircraft fleet of its subsidiary Star Air. “By strengthening our presence in air freight, we are becoming a player capable of adding even more flexibility to our customers’ supply chains”, had then justified Mr. Skou. The plane has emerged as a valuable alternative to maritime transport, which suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic from congestion or the closure of ports.
Reign on sea as on land
The French maritime giant CMA-CGM is also continuing its transformation into a global transport and logistics group. After having acquired, in 2019, the Swiss logistics group Ceva, the French announced, on December 8, the acquisition of the subsidiary of the American Ingram Micro CLS for 2.65 billion euros. It also acquired, in November, the third largest port terminal in Los Angeles, one of the largest in North America, for $ 2.3 billion.
For shipowners who want to reign at sea as on land, ports have become key infrastructures in order to ensure logistical continuity. “ The ports are not functioning as well as they should, so we cannot unload the containers as quickly as we would like ”, had also said in November Mr. Skou to the Financial Times.
It is precisely to avoid this situation that the Italian-Swiss MSC, the second largest shipowner in the world, wants to get its hands on the port terminals, rail concessions and warehouses of Vincent Bolloré’s group in Africa. A takeover offer was made for 5.7 billion euros. “Thanks to these terminals “House”, we are able to give priority to certain vessels when necessary, which gives us better control of the supply chain ”, explained on December 20 the MSC group, which already has stakes in 62 terminals around the world.
You have 37.74% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.