According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, mainland automobile exports reached 2.015 million units in 2021, an increase of 1 times year-on-year, which is the first time that mainland automobile exports have crossed the threshold of 2 million vehicles, breaking the situation that overseas markets have been stagnant for many years.
Under the background of carbon neutrality, the spurt development of overseas business has put forward new requirements for mainland automobile-related service supporting enterprises, especially in the field of maritime logistics. This means that in order to promote the high gold content of "China's intelligent manufacturing" to the world, it is necessary to vigorously strengthen the chain.
On January 17, SAIC Motor and China Shipbuilding Group formally signed an agreement that CSSC Jiangnan Shipbuilding will "tailor" two LNG dual-fuel, low-carbon and environmentally friendly ocean-going automobile carriers (ro-ro ships) with 7600 parking spaces for SAIC's Anji Logistics, actively meeting the growing export business needs of SAIC motor and other independent and foreign brands in China.
Wang Zemin, general manager of SAIC Anji Logistics Co., Ltd., said in an exclusive interview with Nanfang+ that since 2016, Anji Logistics has opened up a number of ro-ro international routes from China to Southeast Asia, Mexico, South America and West, Europe, etc., and the distribution network covers more than 600 cities across the country and more than 100 countries overseas, and will further accelerate business development in the future to provide cross-ocean logistics support for the automotive industry in China and even the world.
"Carbon reduction" increases cross-ocean automotive logistics
Anji Logistics, a subsidiary of SAIC Motor, is the world's first auto parts and vehicle logistics enterprise, with a distribution network covering more than 600 cities in China and more than 100 overseas countries, with an annual shipment volume of up to 10 million vehicles.
As an important part of SAIC's global supply chain center, Anji Logistics has built a strong logistics system covering 30 waterway trunk lines, 130 railway trunk lines and 4900 highway trunk lines in China. At the same time, Anji Logistics actively builds a transportation network overseas, taking the lead in opening up the first Ro-Ro international route independently operated by Chinese car companies - China to Southeast Asia, and has successfully built 6 international routes in Southeast Asia, Mexico, South America and West, and Europe so far.
"This is the first Chinese shipowner to invest in the construction of a 7600-space ro-ro ship, because the double carbon target is very important in our entire industry, and LNG dual fuel is a more effective solution to reduce carbon emissions in the short and medium term from the current point of view." Wang Zemin said that the two ships built this time fully meet the requirements of European regulations and will be mainly used for the Australia-New Zealand route after completion, taking into account the European route.
According to reports, the ro-ro ship contains 1 C-type amphora, with a cabin capacity of 4000 cubic meters, which can load 7600 international standard size passenger cars, meet the environmental protection and emission requirements of developed countries and regions such as North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand in 2030, and basically meet the gas needs of a round-trip voyage between China and South America and China and Europe.
At the same time, with China's exports, a large number of products include new energy products and intelligent network products. The newly built Ro-Ro ship is in the 13-layer splint, and the top 4-layer splint is specially designed for new energy vehicles, and even for hydrogen fuel vehicles. "To a certain extent, this is also to improve the height of our Chinese products, etc. to make some changes, including in the lightweight of ships, but also to do this work, reasonable reduction of some structural parts." Wang Zemin said.
Support the overseas export of Chinese brands
In fact, Anji Logistics continues to accelerate the layout of the ro-ro shipping business and continuously builds a strong, safe and efficient global supply chain system, which is to escort the overseas business of Chinese brands, including SAIC.
The data shows that in 2021, the export of mainland automobiles reached 2.015 million units, an increase of 1 times year-on-year. SAIC Motor itself will sell 697,000 units overseas in 2021, of which 598,000 units will be exported and 99,000 units will be produced and sold at overseas bases. This means that "for every three Chinese cars sold overseas, one is made by SAIC Motor", and products and services have landed in more than 70 countries and regions around the world, forming six "50,000-car" regional markets in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the Americas, the Middle East, ASEAN and South Asia.
Among them, the "China Single Brand Overseas Sales Champion" MG brand overseas sales reached 360,000 units, ranking among the top ten single brands in 17 countries around the world; as the first Chinese automobile brand with full coverage of the European light commercial vehicle electric segment, MAXUS brand overseas sales reached 52,000 units; in India, MG new car equipped with intelligent networking function ASTOR opened pre-sale, 5,000 pre-sale places were all snatched up in 20 minutes, and the deposit order exceeded 11,000 within 2 hours.
"With the increasing volume of Chinese manufacturing exports, RoRo resources are relatively tight. At present, although our foreign trade business has just started, we will continue to increase investment, and actively find external partners to quickly build a foreign trade fleet to ensure that Chinese auto products can be shipped out. Wang Zemin said.
"Saic's sales in overseas markets have increased rapidly in recent years, which fully reflects our scale effect." The relevant person in charge of SAIC Motor said that behind these data, supply chain enterprises have done a major role in guaranteeing. According to SAIC's "14th Five-Year Plan", overseas sales will reach 1.5 million vehicles.
Industry analysts also pointed out that Chinese brands, including SAIC, need to go out in a systematic way, and need upstream and downstream supporting each other. Nowadays, in the case of the global automotive industry supply chain rhythm is disrupted, Anji Logistics has increased its overseas business layout, which actually breaks the bottleneck in the field of mainland automobile export logistics and establishes a support platform for Chinese brands to go overseas.
[Reporter] Guo Xiaoge
【Author】 Guo Xiaoge
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client