APL’s volume rose almost 9.9% to 1.3 million TEUs in 3Q 2016
APL’s 3Q 2016 volume rose almost 9.9% to 1.3 million TEUs (vs. 3Q 2015). This organic growth was driven by more than 20 co-operations on new and enhanced services with CMA CGM, the company said in its press release.
In the Latin America trade, APL now offers its customers direct access to the Caribbean through slot swaps on the Asian Caribbean Express (ACE) service. In the Trans-Pacific where it has a leading position, APL has taken over the management of the USL business, a subsidiary within the CMA CGM Group, and as a result increased its book of business by more than 10%.
In Asia-Europe, APL re-entered the direct India–Northern Europe trade through the India Pakistan Europe (IPE) service.
In the Trans-Atlantic trade, APL now has access to the West Mediterranean to/from US East Coast market through the West-Med Service (WMS).
In 3Q 2016, APL saw its operating margin improve by 40.2% per FEU from the same period in the previous year. In addition, APL’s costs decreased by 15.7% per FEU year-on-year.
In the last three months alone, 19 vessels have been cross-chartered between APL and CMA CGM to maximise utilisation. In addition, more than 6,000 TEUs of containers have been exchanged to save costs.
The CMA CGM-PSA Lion Terminal started operations on 22 July 2016 with an initial two berths and a capacity of 2 million TEUs, with the aim of growing this to four berths in January 2017.
As part of its plan to make Singapore its strategic hub in Asia, CMA CGM moved its regional head office from Hong Kong to Singapore in July 2016. With APL continuing to be headquartered in Singapore, this consolidation of CMA CGM Group’s longstanding presence in Asia in Singapore will provide efficient and quality services to customers in the region.
