CMA CGM Sticks With Sharply Reduced Bunker Hedging

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday March 17, 2021

Container line CMA CGM, which sharply reduced its bunker hedging in advance of the IMO 2020 transition, has cut hedging slightly further for this year.

By the end of 2018 the company had hedged about 10% of its expected bunker requirements for 2019, but by a year later it had hedged just 0.8% of its requirements for 2020.

For this year, by the end of 2020 CMA CGM had hedged just 0.5% of its expected 2021 requirements, it said in its annual report last week.

The company consumed about 7.5 million mt of bunker fuel in 2020, down from about 7.8 million mt in 2019. The firm's bunker and consumables expenses sank by 11% to $3.1 billion.

CMA CGM held $389.3 million worth of bunker fuel by the end of 2020, down from $474.2 million at the end of 2019 and $451.7 million at the end of 2018.

The combination of lower hedging and holding reduced bunker inventories is likely to mean CMA CGM is more exposed to fuel-price volatility this year, losing more from a rising market and benefiting more in a falling one.