(Bloomberg) --
Container shipping traffic is holding up in the face of concerns over global trade tensions, and “volumes are good” so far this year, the head of French shipper CMA CGM said on Sunday.
The company, one of the world's largest maritime transporters, is also continuing as before to ply the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil shipments from the Middle East, despite a series of attacks on tankers, CMA CGM Chief Executive Officer Rodolphe Saade said.
“Of course there are risks in this area but we aren't giving up, we keep going there, like we used to,” he said at an annual economic conference in Aix-en-Provence, southern France. He added that Marseille-based CMA CGM hadn't incurred extra costs so far.
Attacks near the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranian downing of an American drone in recent weeks have raised concerns of another war in the region as the standoff escalates. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran for targeting the vessels and putting oil flows at risk. Iran denies involvement.
Read More: Iran to Pursue Nuclear Talks While Breaching Enrichment Level
Earlier this month, CMA CGM said it would impose a war-risk surcharge of $36 per twenty-foot equivalent cargo unit for sailings to and from the Persian Gulf due to “recent incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and the significant increase in insurance costs in the Middle East.”
The company stopped serving Iran last year due to U.S. sanctions on the country.
Saade also declined to comment on whether he would take a stake in French newspaper La Provence, as reported by Mediapart.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ania Nussbaum in Paris at anussbaum5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tara Patel at tpatel2@bloomberg.net, ;Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, James Regan, Bruce Stanley
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