World No.3 container shipping company CMA CGM says it will open a subsidiary in Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital city in line with its goal to expand into the African market
According to Jean-Philip Thenoz, Managing Director of Groupe/Réseau Agences Groupe, the country was chosen because it had “sea freight potential in refrigerated goods and fish exports.”
This will provide alternate routes of transport for importers and exporters with excellent, frequent and on-point services, he added
Although currently using its Tangier port in Morocco as a sea freight hub for West Africa, the company believes Mauritania has the potential to also become a hub
“In the framework of our maritime transport activities, we could use this city as a hub in West Africa,” Thenoz said.
The French based company, which also had plans to open deep-water port in Nouadhibou, North-West of Mauritania, a project that will be accomplished in the next five years, has also expanded its business across Africa.
Some of its current investments include the launch of a new feeder named Rhino Express in Mozambique ports, Noura Express, a service that links Somalia with the world, the provision of TCD2 container platform in Dakar and others in Nigeria and Senegal.
A largerly desert country, Mauritania is located at the North western tip of Africa, and links the Arab Maghreb and western sub-Saharan Africa.
According to a BBC report, the country has pinned hopes for future prosperity on the recent exploitation of its oil and natural gas reserves, which is expected to “yield millions of barrels of oil.”
With the advent of operations of CMA CGM, Mauritania’s maritime and shipping industry might withness a resurgence, as the country’s Nouadhibou port has been notoriously labelled the world’s largest shipping graveyard, a title that which puts the country at a disadvantage to leverage on the French container shipping company’s business operations in over 150 countries.
