CMA CGM SA, the world’s third- largest container shipper, said demand for cargo space on its Asia-to-Europe routes is recovering in the wake of the recession, while U.S.-Asia routes remain stagnant.

“We’re not in a state of euphoria, but the number of positive signals we’re getting is growing from day to day,” Nicolas Sartini, head of the company’s Asia-to-Europe unit, said in an interview in Paris today. “We’re seeing the same trend on most routes. The one exception is the trans-Pacific, where we’re still looking at ways to trim capacity.”

His comments illustrate the shape of the global economic recovery in the aftermath of the financial crisis and the worst recession in more than half a century. They suggest that U.S. retailers and consumers, the driver of world growth in recent years, remain restrained while counterparts elsewhere are taking up some of the slack.

CMA CGM, a privately held company based in Marseille, France, is in talks with creditors and potential investors after the plunge in demand that began a year ago left it in breach of covenants on $4 billion of debt and forced it to use $1.2 billion in cash in the first half of 2009.

The recovery of non-U.S. routes may be key to the company’s fortunes as the current management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Jacques Saade, seeks to maintain control.

The volume of goods shipped on the Asia-Europe routes rose 2 percent in the third quarter compared with a year earlier and will climb about 13 percent in the fourth, Sartini said.

Those lines, including both northern and southern Europe, represent at least a third of CMA CGM’s business, compared with about 15 percent for the Asia-to-U.S. shipping lines. They’ll also be profitable in the fourth quarter, unlike in the first half of the year, Sartini said.

“The final months of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, we’ve never seen anything like that,” he said of the drop-off in demand that came as orders for manufactured goods dried up around the world. “You have to keep in mind that for the previous seven or eight years, we had one single occupation: finding enough capacity to meet demand.”

CMA CGM expects demand on its Asia-to-Europe routes to grow 7 percent to 8 percent in 2010 compared with this year, though it retains the ability to cut costs and capacity by slowing ships if necessary.

“We remain prudent,” said Sartini, who has been in the shipping business for 20 years. “In 2010, retailers will be watching their markets. We have the tools to manage the situation.”