December 1st, 2011 - The world’s second and third-largest container shipping companies have announced the signature of a major agreement. The two family-owned companies, the Swiss-Italian MSC and France ’s CMA CGM, today agreed to form a broad-based operating partnership spanning several trades, including Asia-Northern Europe, Asia-Southern Africa and all of the South American markets.

The agreement, which is designed to improve the two partners’ respective performance, will help to drive extensive operating synergies and enhance quality of service for all of their customers.

On a certain number of trades, the partnership will also enable the Groups to deploy the best ships in each of their fleets, while increasing the number of ports of call and frequency of sailings.

Diego Aponte, Vice President of MSC, said: “we are very happy to have signed this broad-based partnership, which will unite our two family-owned companies in the years ahead. The agreement offers us new opportunities to optimise the use of our respective fleets, improve our transit times and increase our performance.”

Rodolphe Saadé, Executive Officer of CMA CGM Group, said: “for more than 30 years, our two companies have followed the same trajectory and for a number of years we’ve cooperated on a few lines. Based on this experience and our shared vision of the shipping industry, we have decided to step up our partnerships, which reflect a commitment to long-term cooperation and will enable us to offer customers improved solutions and services.”