During its meeting, the Board of Directors approved the consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023.
2023 highlights
Demonstrating resilience in a gradually worsening maritime shipping environment
After two extraordinary years in 2021 and 2022, the transport and logistics industry experienced a year of transition and normalization in 2023. In late 2022, widespread inflation began to weigh on household purchasing power in Europe and the United States, dampening demand for consumer goods. The decline in demand was exacerbated by major inventory reductions in the first half of 2023, as supply chains readjusted.
2023 also saw a slowdown in economic growth after the strong post-pandemic recovery, with rising inflation and a shift in consumer spending to services. These factors pushed down demand for shipping and logistics services.
Despite this challenging environment, the CMA CGM Group leveraged its financial strength to pursue its strategy of investing in its shipping, port, logistics and air freight capabilities, while maintaining its commitment to the energy transition.
Maritime shipping and port terminals: a year of normalization, with deteriorated conditions in the final quarter
For the maritime shipping industry, 2023 was a year of contrasting halves. Behind the relative stability in volumes transported by the Group's shipping lines over the full year (up 0.5%) lay major disparities between the first and second halves, as well as among the main shipping routes.
- In the first half, container volumes fell by a sharp 2.7% due to sluggish demand for consumer goods and the impact of inventory reduction. The supply-demand mismatch weighed on freight rates.
- The second half saw a rebound in demand, which increased volumes 3.8% over the period. Nevertheless, freight rates remained under pressure due to an influx of new shipping capacity, which maintained the imbalance between supply and demand.
In comparison to 2022, 2023 volumes carried by the Group on the North-South routes (up 4.2%) and intra-regional lines (up 3.3%) proved more resilient than on the East-West routes (down 2.7%), thanks in particular to the sustained robust growth of certain emerging economies.
In addition, CMA CGM continued to invest in industry-leading port infrastructure in 2023.
Logistics: expanding capabilities with new acquisitions
In 2023, the CMA CGM 
Group pursued its strategy of developing an integrated suite of logistics solutions to support its customers' supply chains. Following the acquisition of CEVA Logistics in 2019 and Ingram Micro CLS, Colis Privé and GEFCO in 2022, the Group continued its transformation in 2023 with an agreement to acquire Bolloré Logistics, which will make it one of the world's top five providers of transport and logistics services.
For more information: cmacgm-group.com