CMA CGM and the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) have signed a five-year partnership agreement to identify, design and develop innovative solutions together.
Calling on their respective expertise, the two organisations will serve shipping, logistics and the space industry through this partnership.
Rodolphe Saadé, CMA CGM chairman and CEO, said: “CNES is world-renowned for its space expertise.
“This unique partnership will cement our innovation strategy, enabling us to benefit from technologies developed by CNES, be it to optimise our operations or to support our energy transition.”
Under the agreement, CNES and CMA CGM’s experts will focus on a range of topics including smart ship routing, the maritime energy transition, upgrading of port activities and infrastructures as well as contributions of the space sector to optimising logistics.
These focus areas were defined through Connect CNES, the space agency’s initiative to put its expertise to work in helping firms develop innovative products and services leveraging space technologies and services.
Analysis has concentrated on seeking ways of exploiting space data and services to enhance mobility management in the maritime sector.
CNES chairman and CEO Philippe Baptiste said: “Creating activities from satellite data and services for our societies is a major focus of action for us at the French space agency.
“This agreement signed with CMA CGM, one of the world’s leading shipping and logistics players, is a perfect illustration of our desire to reach outside the space industry, notably to the mobility sector, which is a priority area for Connect by CNES alongside the environment and healthcare.”
This approach ties with CMA CGM’s ambition to forge partnerships outside the shipping industry and offer innovative and disruptive solutions to build the shipping and logistics of the future for its customers and to preserve the environment.
The two companies, both members of the French Maritime Cluster, will be working with start-ups and SMEs and relying on their entities charged with supporting business development and start=ups (ZEBOX, CMA CGM Venture and Connect by CNES) as well as on CMA CGM’s R&D teams.
