CMA CGM And PSA To Establish Joint Singapore Terminal Venture

CMA CGM is set to form a joint venture company with PSA Singapore to operate and lease four container terminals.
The joint venture, in which PSA Singapore will hold a 51% majority stake and CMA CGM 49%, will sub-lease the dedicated box berths from PSA Corp, who will provide the pair with both ancillary facilities and the procurement of container-handing equipment.
CMA CGM and its affiliated lines will be given exclusive access to the terminals held under the joint venture, which a PSA corporate spokesperson told Lloyd’s List are located at the Pasir Panjang terminal to the east of the port.
News of the venture comes shortly after the announcement from CMA CGM that it had launched an all-cash voluntary conditional general offer for the Singaporean line NOL, which owns ocean carrier APL, after obtaining approvals by the relevant regulatory authorities in the European Union and China.
NOL’s majority shareholder Temasek Holdings and related companies own a 66.78% share and will tender these in acceptance of the offer, but Temasek is also the sole owner of PSA Singapore.
According to Alphaliner, the move to set up the terminal venture with CMA CGM is part of the Singapore Government’s plan to wrest back some of the transhipment volumes that have been lost to the competing Malaysian ports of Port Kelang, which the French carrier currently uses as its transhipment base in Southeast Asia, and Tanjung Pelepas.
“PSA’s share of the Southeast Asia (or ‘Straits’) container transhipment volume has fallen from 89% in the year 2000 to only 62% in 2015,” said Alphaliner.
“Singapore’s overall container throughput has fallen by -7.8% in the first four months of this year, following a -8.7% loss last year, whereas its key competitors gained ground.”
In addition to its venture with CMA CGM, PSA Singapore is also set to gain further transhipment traffic from Port Kelang from 2017, with China Cosco agreeing to switch its current two-berth joint venture terminal to a new three-berth facility at the new Phase 3/4 modules of PSA’s Pasir Panjang Terminal, said Alphaliner.
“China Cosco currently uses Singapore as the main hub for Cosco volumes, while China Shipping Container Lines, which merged with Cosco on March 1, uses Port Kelang’s Westports as its main Southeast Asia hub,” it added.
With CMA CGM and Cosco set to join forces with OOCL, which already uses Singapore as its main ‘Straits hub’ and Evergreen under the banner of the Ocean Alliance next year, Alphaliner says the Taiwanese line is PSA’s next target.
"Ocean Alliance is to start operations next April and PSA’s success in establishing joint ventures with two of the carrier group’s core members, Cosco and CMA CGM, will likely result in Singapore being used as the alliance’s main hub in the region,” it said.
“The new CMA CGM-PSA joint venture could prove to be a major coup for Singapore, as bringing CMA CGM and its new alliance partners back to PSA’s fold could finally reverse a long-term structural decline.”
As part of the agreement between CMA CGM and PSA Singapore, PSA Terminals Management will provide berth management services to the company, which in turn willl provide long-term terminal services to CMA CGM and its shipping line affiliates, pursuant to a long-term terminal service agreement.
The joint venture company is still subject to the receipt of relevant regulatory approvals.