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Rodolphe Saadé, CEO of the CMA CGM Group awarded “Global Personality Award” at SeaTrade Maritime Awards International 2020

The award celebrates Rodolphe Saadé’s leading contribution to the shipping industry and his commitment to the energy transition.

Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, a world leader in shipping and logistics, has been honored as the Global Personality at the SeaTrade Maritime Awards International 2020 in Shanghai, China, today. The accolade celebrates Rodolphe Saadé’s dynamic leadership of the CMA CGM Group as well as his leadership in environmental commitments and initiatives which are exemplary in the maritime industry.

LNG, a ground-breaking choice that aims to preserve air quality and an energy of the future

In November 2017, Rodolphe Saadé made the ground-breaking decision to fit the CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE and her 8 sister ships with an LNG-powered engine, a first in the shipping industry for 23,000-TEUs vessels. In September, CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE started sailing as the world’s largest containership to be fully powered by LNG on the French Asia Line 1 service. Named after the late Jacques Saadé, founder of the CMA CGM Group, the giant vessel has since been joined by sistership CMA CGM Champs Elysées and CMA CGM TENERE, the first of six 15,000-TEU, LNG-powered container ships chartered by the CMA CGM Group. They will form a part of the Group’s fleet of 26 LNG-powered vessels by 2022.

LNG is currently the state-of-the-art industry solution for preserving air quality and undoubtedly the best technical solution currently available in terms of energy transition. This technology is one of the first steps towards achieving CMA CGM Group’s ambitious 2050 objective of carbon neutrality.

Rodolphe Saadé is mobilized to accelerate the industry's energy transition

Rodolphe Saadé took pioneering decisions demonstrating the CMA CGM Group’s resolve to leading the energy transition in the shipping sector:

• A commitment to the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for large-capacity ships for the first time in the shipping industry. LNG enables a 99% reduction in sulfur oxide and fine particle emissions, up to 85% of nitrogen oxide emissions and around 20% of CO2 emissions;
• A world first in the use of a latest-generation biofuel, made from recycled vegetable oils and forest residues, enabling an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions over the entire life cycle; CMA CGM has earmarked 10% of its energy supplies to be alternative fuels by 2023.
• The launch of an international coalition for tomorrow's energy to bring together major international companies for the first time. Supported by the French President, this high-level coalition is working on the emergence of clean energies for carbon-free transport.

Picture source: Straits Times