CMA CGM to Invest €700M for Upgrading Mombasa Port

On the sidelines of the Africa Forward Summit (#AFS2026) in Nairobi, CMA CGM and the Government of Kenya signed an agreement whereby the French shipping giant agreed to invest EUR 700 million ($820M) to upgrade Mombasa Container Terminal. The signing was witnessed by Kenya’s President William Ruto and France’s President Emmanuel Macron.

In 2025, Mombasa handled 2.11 million Twenty-Foot Equivalents (#TEU), representing a 5.5% year-on-year growth. Thus, Mombasa is operating near its full capacity and an upgrade is urgently needed.

The upgrade will boost the handling capacity to 3.5 million TEU. The quays will be dredged to accommodate the next-generation Ultra-Large Container Vessels (#ULCV). accommodate. The upgrade works are expected to be completed by 2030.

In line with positioning Mombasa as a gateway into the East African Community (#EAC), CMA CGM is bringing on board its subsidiary CEVA Logistics to provide multimodal end-to-end transport services deep into Africa, serving landlocked countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In that regard, the Government of Kenya introduced reforms to facilitate foreign investments via Public-Private Partnerships (#PPP). Thus, the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) will open up several areas around the Mombasa port for development by private investors. In particular, the opened-up areas include Berths 20-24 at Mombasa Port Container Terminal.

CMA CGM is most likely to focus its efforts on modernizing these berths. The French shipping company has been operating in Kenya since 2005 and has recently opened a regional office in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. It has offices around Africa and is involved in the Kribi Container Terminal in Cameroon, the Lekki Deep Port in Nigeria and the Pointe-Noire Deep Water Terminal in DRC.