France's CMA CGM to redeploy fleet to avoid U.S. port fees on Chinese vessels
PARIS, May 16 (Reuters) - French shipping group CMA CGM will reorganise its global fleet to avoid U.S. port fees on Chinese-built vessels that are due to take effect from October, the company's finance director said.
The port charges are another operational headache for shipping firms wrestling with the fallout from U.S. tariffs, though adjustments made by Washington after an industry backlash have made the fee scheme less disruptive than feared, Ramon Fernandez, CMA CGM's chief financial officer, told Reuters.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration aims to use the port fees to counter China's dominance in global shipbuilding and support a revival of U.S. maritime transport.
"We have enough ship capacity to adapt to this situation and avoid paying fees," Fernandez said in an interview, adding that less than half of CMA CGM's fleet of around 670 ships were Chinese-built.
On a complex scale of fees, Chinese companies operating ships built in China face the steepest levies for calling at U.S. ports.
All shipping firms including China's COSCO would adapt to the fees, Fernandez added during a call with reporters, without commenting on the potential impact on Ocean Alliance, a vessel-sharing agreement in which CMA CGM and COSCO are among the partners.
The world's third-largest container shipping line, CMA CGM, was hailed by Trump for a plan to invest $20 billion in the United States.
Reporting first-quarter results, CMA CGM said a rush to ship goods before the U.S. tariffs announcement on April 2 had supported a 4.2% year-on-year rise in its maritime volumes, contributing to an increase in group sales and profits.
Controlled by the French-Lebanese Saade family, CMA CGM also has a large logistics business and growing media interests.
Echoing its peers, CMA CGM said the escalation in tariffs in April had stifled trade between China and the U.S., before a revival in demand this week following a Sino-American agreement to scale back tariffs temporarily.
The group saw the cancellation of around half of bookings for May shipments between China and the United States prior to an upturn this week, Fernandez said.
"Everyone is expecting trade in June to be much more active than was feared just a few days ago."
He declined to give an outlook for full-year volume growth in container shipping, citing uncertainty over how the on-off trade war will play out.
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