In 2023, China's auto exports surpassed Japan's and jumped to the world's first place for the first time. And in the past few years, China's car exports have continued to reach new highs, increasing from 1 million to 5 million in four years.
This will be a great test of the capacity of automobile transportation. At present, the mainland's automobile exports generally use ocean shipping, railway freight, and road transportation, and 80% of exports have to rely on ocean shipping. However, there are only about 700 special car carriers in the world, mainly concentrated in the hands of European, Japanese and South Korean shipowners, and are deeply bound to local car manufacturers, such as most of the capacity of Japanese car ships to Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and other manufacturers, and the share of Japanese car ships accounts for 40% of the world.
From 2021 to 2023, the one-year rent of a 6,500 standard car carrier soared from $10,000 per day to $115,000 per day, an increase of more than ten times.
As a last resort, Chinese car companies began to buy their own ships to form their own fleets, and the earliest action was SAIC, with 9 ships dedicated to Europe, South America, Mexico and Southeast Asia. Over the next three years, 14 ocean-going carriers will join these routes.
SAIC Anji's car ro-ro ship
In December last year, BYD's first car ro-ro carrier "EXPLORER 1" was also delivered.
In 2023, Chery will establish a car carrier construction base in Weihai to produce the first batch of three 7,000-space car carriers, and GAC and China Merchants have established a joint venture Guangzhou China Merchants Ro-Ro Transportation Company.
It is believed that in the near future, with the increase of transportation capacity, China's automobile exports will become smoother and smoother, and the export volume will set a new record.