The General Authority for Land and Sea Ports, affiliated with the Interim Government of Damascus, has announced the signing of a new contract with the French company CMA CGM, which operates the container terminal at Latakia Port.
According to the authority’s statement on Wednesday, February 5, previous financial settlements between the Syrian side and the French operator were resolved, and a new contract was signed under revised terms and mechanisms.
The agreement was reached during a meeting between the authority’s chairman, Qutaiba Badawi, and the company’s Middle East director, Joseph Daqaq.
CMA CGM had previously renewed its contract with the former regime in October 2024 for 30 years, according to Karam Shaar, director of the Syrian program at the Political and Economic Networks Observatory, in an earlier statement to Enab Baladi. At that time, the company was expected to renew its contract for only five years.
The company had also renewed its contract with the previous regime in 2019 after the expiration of its initial 2009 contract, which allowed for a five-year renewal upon mutual agreement.
Since 2009
In February 2009, the former regime signed a contract with CMA CGM, Terminal Link, and Syria Holding to manage the Latakia Port container terminal for ten years, with an option for a five-year renewal.
These three companies later merged into Latakia International Container Terminal (LICT), a Syrian limited liability company that managed the container terminal operations and contracts, beginning its work in October 2009.
The operating company invested $45.9 million, with a portion allocated for maintenance and equipment purchases, which would revert to the port’s ownership after the contract’s expiration.
The contract required the terminal to employ 160 workers from the port’s surplus workforce and hire 550 additional workers from the labor market. Revenue distribution was set at 61.05% for the port authority and 38.95% for the operating company, with the terminal expected to meet global operational standards, including full electronic revenue monitoring.
The terminal spans 33 hectares in its initial phase, featuring four berths, 12 refrigerated container connections, four quay cranes, five mobile cranes, 26 yard cranes, 17 stackers, 55 forklifts, and 33 tractors.
What is CMA CGM?
CMA CGM first emerged in 1978 under the name Compagnie Maritime d’Affrètement, starting with just four employees, a single vessel, and one shipping route linking Beirut, Latakia, Livorno, and Marseille.
Over the years, the company expanded, acquiring both state-owned and private shipping firms across multiple continents, eventually becoming the world’s third-largest maritime shipping giant.
The company’s founder, Jacques Saadé, was originally from Latakia, holding French and Lebanese citizenships. He came from a bourgeois family and moved to Lebanon in 1970 due to nationalization policies in Syria. However, after the Lebanese Civil War erupted, he relocated to France.
Saadé passed away on June 24, 2018, at the age of 81, with his son, Rodolphe Saadé, having taken over as CEO in 2017.
According to a September 2024 investigation by Radio France, Jacques and Rodolphe Saadé maintained strong ties with French politicians, including François Hollande, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Emmanuel Macron.
Jacques began investing in Latakia after accompanying Sarkozy on his visit to Syria in 2008. Later, Rodolphe secured investments in Beirut and Tripoli ports following his presence alongside President Emmanuel Macron during his August 2020 visit to Lebanon after the Beirut Port explosion.
While the Saadé family’s investments in Syria remained limited to Latakia Port, in Lebanon, they established a near-economic empire, particularly in the port sector (Beirut and Tripoli) and various other industries.
