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| Ceva Logistics |
Ceva Logistics has taken another step forward in its aim to give rival Bolloré a run for its money in Africa, with a new acquisition and strategy for growth.
It has acquired a 70% stake AMI Worldwide, which operates as AMI and Manica, a company with particular focus on eastern and southern Africa, and offices in Africa-focused China and the Middle East. The deal, noted in Ceva’s first-quarter results, was expected to close in July, with AMI’s 1,000 staff joining Ceva. It will combine the networks from 1 July.
Ceva said its Africa plan was three-fold, with the second development the integration of three of owner CMA CGM’s inland service facilities into Ceva’s network, in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
Ceva has also set up a joint-venture in Ethiopia with forwarder MACFAA, a CMA CGM agent, and has expanded in Mauritania, setting up a ‘direct presence’ operating transit corridors.
As Transport Intelligence (Ti) noted in its Global Logistics 2020 report: “Despite being resource rich, Africa’s logistics sector will only take off when African industry moves up the value chain and manufacturing becomes more important.”
Nigeria is the second-largest market – but, like in up-and-coming Ghana, Ceva has no network there. Other “promising markets” include Kenya and Ethiopia, while Ti added: “South Africa remains the undisputed leader when it comes to growth opportunities for LSPs.”
Ethiopia is regarded as one of the markets with the most opportunities, as it aims to become a low-cost manufacturing hub, in particular in fashion and textiles, aiming to take market share from Bangladesh and Vietnam. It is also a major hub for flowers.
Key verticals in Africa are oil and gas, with retail and consumer “becoming more popular, pointing to the changing landscape in West and East Africa, where the middle class and spending power are expanding rapidly”, said Ti.
CEVA Logistics is a global logistics and supply chain company in both freight management and contract logistics with US$7 billion in revenues. Its head office is in Baar, Switzerland and it was founded in 2007, as a merger of TNT Logistics and EGL Eagle Global Logistics
