One of the world’s biggest shipping companies, CMA CGM, has said shipments from China are returning to normal, even as investors bet against the French group’s solvency.
Rodolphe Saadé, chief executive of Marseille-based CMA CGM, told the Financial Times: “The warehouses are empty in Europe, they need to order from China to fulfil demand. [Chinese] factories are at 80 per cent of full production, and we think by the end of March the situation will be back to normal.”
However Mr Saadé warned the economic shock was shifting from China to Europe. “Today we can see it’s becoming a global crisis,” he said. “In Europe there is a lot of fear over the coronavirus.”