Shipowners gear up for surging Chinese automotive exports

In the first half of 2023, the total import and export value of automobile for China was $136 billion, an increase of 16.2% year-on-year. Among which the export value was $99.97 billion, growing 41.7%. The export automobile amount was 2.14m units in H1, a substantial growth of 75.7% year-on-year.

“We are expecting to export four million units of automobile this year and the export volume will keep increasing for the coming ten years, said Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, adding that, competitiveness of China’s automobile products greatly enhanced in recent years, as well as the new-energy automobile products.

“Automobile export is a system, including capabilities of logistics, financing and the whole after-market service level, which might to be a challenge for Chinese automobile makers to comprehensively improve these and provide better car export services. We believe the Chinese automobile market still has great potentials and demands are also on the upswing,” he said.

Although China’s automobile exports have entered into an accellerated period of growth, the country’s car makers still face some challenges on exploring overseas markets. The exported automobile will need to be suited for different regulations, certification, consumption habits of various regions worldwide.

An official from a leading Chinese new energy car manufacturer told Seatrade Maritime News, that exports are growing fast for Chinese electric vehicles however, they have not become the main force in overseas market. “We are expecting to improve the production capacity and the supply chain ability which will support overseas sales market expansion,” he said.

Automobile exports from China are entering into a new stage of development and the international market share keeps increasing.

The industry players involved, including but not limited to the shipping company ues, automobile manufacturers, port operators, logistics service providers all want to have a finger in the pie and have started to increase investment in automobile industry chain.

The two major Chinese ship owners, Cosco Shipping and China Merchants are establishing cooperated relationship with domestic leading automobile makers, ChangAn, one of the four largest automobile manufacturers in China, also a major shareholder of Changan Mingsheng Logistics which is a professional third-party automobile logistics provider, as well as BYD, the pioneer in new energy automobile production, are seeking for more collaborations on automobile logistics supply chain development.

Cosco Shipping Specialized Carriers and China Merchants Energy Shipping have entered into cooperation agreements with Changan Minsheng Logistics to jointly develop automobile logistics.

The Chinese owners are expanding fleet on car carriers and have placed a growing number of orders for the construction of car carriers recently to meet the increasing demands from automobile transportation.

China Merchants Energy Shipping, Cosco Shipping Car Carriers, as well as Chinese automobile logistics service provider Anji Logistics and the car manufacturer BYD are building a number of car carriers at Chinese shipyards.

The surging demand from China’s car export sector have also prompted Chinese industry players to establish closer communications with the global market.

Domestic port operators Shandong Port Group and Ningbo-Zhoushan Port are collaborating on automobile supply chain services with AD Ports and DP World; the shipping line Cosco Shipping Car Carrier has also inked a strategic cooperation agreement with its first overseas partner PWL Shipping for developing ro-ro market in Europe.

In August, automobile exports from China were 408,000 units, an increase of 32.1% year-on-year. During January and August, automobile export of China was 2.94 million units, a substantial growth of 61.9%.

China is planning to introduce several policies to boost automobile consumption and stabilise the growth trend to further promote the automobile industry development, according to an official from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

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