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French transport massive Rodolph Saade has pledged to invest $20 billion in the US over the next four years.
Investments by Marseille-based CMA CGM, run by Saadé, include new ships, air freight and logistics bases. The billionaire announced the move in the oval office on Thursday, standing with President Donald Trump and the so-called American Gulf poster, the new name of the Gulf administration in the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump said he was “excited” about the investment and asked Saadé about the possibility of building a ship in the US. CMACGM’s boss said he is considering it as part of a plan to add 20 ships to a fleet of 10 in the US.
“We are considering building a vessel vessel, and we are likely to announce it in the coming weeks,” Saadé said, adding that the overall plan in the US, where CMA CGM currently employs 15,000 people, will add 10,000 jobs. In response, Trump said the US “we built ships in a day, but now we essentially didn’t build them.”
CMA CGM has steadily grown ports in Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey at around $5 billion since 2021, expanding its US operations. The US currently accounts for about a quarter of CMA CGM’s revenue.
Under the new US plan, Saadé said the company would spend $8 billion on container ships and $7 billion on logistics. It will also invest $4 billion in ports and $1 billion in air freight.
Saadé is the latest business leader to overtures to the Trump administration, trying to encourage companies to move production to the US and threatened to hit trade partners with tariffs.
Saadé attended a bystander event at Trump’s inauguration in January, discussing investment and sector with the White House.
Trump shows he wants to revive our presence in a sector dominated by Mediterranean shipping companies and European companies such as Ap Møller-Maersk and large Chinese groups. The US has no own major container carrier company since Maersk bought the last one in the late 1990s.
Trump is focusing on regaining control of the Panama Canal, and also shows that the idea of potentially taxing containers from China via port rates focuses on shipping as a US strategy.
Saadé, who took over the private group that his father built from scratch in 2017, grew the company through recent acquisitions, taking advantage of the demand from consumers who shop from home since the pandemic.
In France, Saad is a close supporter of President Emmanuel Macron, who has accompanied him on state visits to the US and China in recent years, and hosted him in CMA CGM’s vast operations in Marseille during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.
Saadé has also purchased French media organizations such as the 24-hour news channel BFM and the La Tribune Newspaper, following practices by other billionaires, including LVMH owner Bernard Arnault and industrialist Vincent Bolloré.
CMA CGM’s business was resilient despite the global turmoil, such as the Houthi attack in the Red Sea, but also forced shipping companies to reroute to Asia. Saadé said the outlook for the year is uncertain and tariffs could shake global trade.
CMA CGM reported that net income in 2024 increased 36% year-on-year to $57.1 billion with revenue of $55.5 billion, an increase of 17% from 2023.
