China’s shipowners and carmakers are making a concerted push to grow their car-carrier fleets as exports increase.
Cosco Shipping Specialized Carriers, carmaker BYD, and SAIC Anji Logistics plan to jointly invest around $2.5bn to build 21 11,000 ceu car-carriers in compatriot shipyards.
Cosco Shipping is ordering up to 11 of the vessels, BYD is planning eight, and SAIC Anji, two.
Xiamen Shipbuilding and Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) are reportedly Cosco’s choice to build its vessels. SAIC Anji has issued a tender, inviting international shipbuilders to submit quotes.
The tender document, launched on 23 September, states that the shipbuilders must have completed at least ten LNG dual-fuelled car carriers with capacity of at least 7,000 ceu between 1 January 2023 and 31 August 2026.
Based on Clarksons’ data, only China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu), GSI, China Merchants Jinling and Yantai CIMC Raffles meet the criteria.
Car-carriers exceeding 10,000 ceu remain in the minority, and the Chinese push shows an intent to reduce the per-vehicle cost of transport. If the newbuilding orders are signed by year-end, it would mean more than 100 have been ordered this year, a record. The current orderbook is 26.7% of the active fleet.
Hyundai Glovis, the carmaker’s shipping unit, is operating four of a total of 20 10,800 ceu vessels, the other 16 still under construction. Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the world’s largest car-carrier operator, is building seven 12,100 ceu ships at China Merchants Jinling, for delivery between 2027 and 2028.
Meanwhile, Ningbo Ocean Shipping (NBOSCO), Ningbo-Zhoushan Port Group’s liner subsidiary, plans to charter two 7,000 ceu LNG dual-fuelled car-carriers.
It said in a Shanghai Stock Exchange filing on 8 October it would pay up to $480m to lease the two ships for 20 years. Details of where the ships would be built, and their delivery dates, were not disclosed.
The carrier entered the car-shipping business in August, after chartering the 7,000 ceu Clean Star from Atlas EMF, a joint-venture between Greek shipping company Atlas Maritime and Danish investor European Maritime Finance.
Meanwhile, on Friday, following trade discussions, the EU capped annual Chinese hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) imports at 350,000 units, with an annual quota growth rate of 6%. The bloc imported around 302,000 HEVs from China last year, while the 2026 trajectory would have indicated around 800,000 prior to the deal.
Fearnley Securities, however, claimed that while the EU’s quota would dampen tonne-km demand for car-carriers, overall demand remains positive.
Chinese monthly car exports now exceed a million, and the Norwegian brokerage estimates that car-carrying capacity is around 3m ceu short, on an annualised basis. Reduced European imports would thus, not hurt the shipping market, it said.
Fearnley added: “Moreover, China could be able to push more vehicles to other jurisdictions, potentially offsetting fewer European imports. Fleet growth will be declining through 2029, before 2030 could represent an uptick in deliveries depending on contracting activity (2030 has the first available yard slots).”