Sailing might be the most recognisable seaborne pursuit at the Rio Olympic Games but if they gave out medals for shipping, France’s CMA CGM would definitely be a contender.
As the Olympic flame was ignited by Brazil’s 2004 Athens Olympic Games marathon bronze medallist Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima in the Maracanã stadium on August 6, the world’s third largest container line proudly watched on having transported 17,000 tons of goods to Brazil for the XXXI Olympiad.
The Marseille-based Group shipped 1,400 containers for the Olympic village, which is playing host to 10,500 athletes from 206 nations.
CMA CGM ‘Operation Rio’ began in December 2015 from Asia and Europe while the last containers reached Rio de Janeiro in June 2016.
Among them, more than 200 were loaded from the French ports of Fos sur Mer and Le Havre. In China, most of the containers were loaded in Shanghai, Nansha and Yantan.
CMA CGM also transported security barriers for the men’s and women’s road cycle races.
The 2016 Olympics are a logistical marvel involving some 30 million items, the majority of which have been freighted in from around the world. Bloomberg reports that 70% of the 6000 cargo containers cleared in Rio came via sea.
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