Splash247: Containerlines cash in on Chinese car export boom

Published by Splash247

China’s passenger car exports surged 73% year-on-year in May to approximately 809,000 vehicles, with the boom in electric vehicle shipments driving car carrier charter rates to fresh highs and effectively clearing the spot market of available tonnage.

Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows May’s figure edged above the 796,000 passenger cars exported in April, continuing an unbroken run of record-challenging monthly totals. The most striking element of the May data was the performance of new energy vehicles – fully electric and plug-in hybrid models combined – which more than doubled year-on-year to a record 435,000 units, accounting for over half of all passenger car exports for the first time. 

The impact on car carrier shipping has been significant, with Clarksons quoting $65,000 per day in May.

Shipping analysts at SEB described the data as confirmation of a structural shift rather than a cyclical bump.

Around 1m cars are exported from China on containerships today

“May was another positive datapoint for the roro story – Chinese export momentum shows no signs of slowing,” the bank said in a note to clients yesterday.

The tightness in the car carriers market has now reached the point where Chinese original equipment manufacturers are being forced to divert volumes onto containerships to meet export commitments. “The latest wave of Chinese export volumes has effectively vacuumed the market for short-term TC, pushing one-year rates even higher and forcing Chinese OEMs to increasingly divert volumes onto container vessels, as ro-ro capacity simply cannot keep pace with demand,” SEB said.

Dan Nash, a car carrier analyst with Veson Nautical, highlighted many metrics showing how car carrier fortunes have leapt in recent months. 

The brand new 7,000 ceu Lake Rotorua was fixed at $90,000 a day for six-months to SAIC Anji Logistics in May, 70% above the one-year 6,500 ceu index. 

Light vehicle spot freight rates have firmed to $150 per cu m from China to Europe this month, up 100% versus the Q4 2025 average.

In excess of $34m has been placed on the 18-year-old, 3,930 ceu Trans Leader by Chinese interests, which is $20.5m above the 10-year fixed age average, according to VesselsValue.

“China is short on roro capacity, and newbuild deliveries look insufficient to meet their export requirements for the rest of this year, supporting a higher for longer trend for rates and values in the car carrier market,” Nash told Splash today.

Veson data suggests around 1m cars are exported from China on containerships today due to insufficient roro capacity. 

Nash said he expects the majority will switch back to car carriers when supply improves in 2027/28, providing a buffer for roro owner-operator earnings.

“In many ways, since 2021, the fortunes of the car carrier companies have mirrored those of the container liner operators,” commented Darron Wadey, a senior analyst at Dynamar, adding: “However, where the car carriers did differ was in carefully rationalising their fleets prior to the coronavirus outbreak. Essentially, the sector right-sized.”

This meant that with the post-covid boom, there was very little shipping capacity to handle the uptick leading to higher freight rates. Moreover, Wadey explained that with vessel construction slots in shipyards not as numerous as for containerships, the wide imbalance between demand growth and capacity growth was maintained for longer than with the container sector.