French shipping giant CMA CGM has announced agreements with Multiparques Group, signed by its general manager Leonel Pinto before the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Angola Foreign Minister George Rebelo Pinto Chicoti.

Those agreements define the two groups association for the terminal operation at Lobito, 400 kilometres south of the capital Luanda toward the southern end of Angola's Atlantic coast, to open later this year.

"Lobito is Angola second port, and its location and train transportation connections make it a strategic entry point in West Africa," said CMA CGM reefer vice president Alexis Michel.

"This not only allows Benguela and Huambo  - two major Angola cities - service, but also thanks to the new railway renovation, to link the city to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia Copperbelt mining region to the sea. Those different elements promise the Port of Lobito to a great intermodal future," Mr Michel said.

The CMA CGM Group with its brands CMA CGM and Delmas is present in all 43 African countries with 72 offices offering 26 direct services calling on the African continent, including 15 to West Africa.

To strengthen its Angola network (where seven services regularly call), the CMA CGM Group capitalises on its intermodal expertise, with land infrastructure, ports, terminals and multimodal investments.

"In Angola, 122 collaborators work in five offices to connect the entire transportation chain to CMA CGM maritime services," said the company statement.