Guangzhou Ocean Car Carrier (GOCC) is the latest company to jump on the red-hot car-carrier market with an order for three pure car/truck carrier newbuildings on the back of China’s automobile export growth.
GOCC — a joint venture between Cosco Shipping Specialised Carriers, SAIC Anji Logistics and Shanghai International Port Group’s SIPG Logistics — has commissioned state-owned Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) to construct three 7,000-ceu pure car/truck carrier (PCTC) newbuildings to be delivered in 2026.
According to local media reports, the 13-deck PCTCs that GOCC ordered will be LNG dual-fuelled ships and they will be equipped with mega-lithium batteries to reduce fuel emissions when in port.
GOCC decided the time was right to order the newbuildings because of a shortage of car carriers and China’s growing automobile export volumes.
The newbuilding price was not disclosed but brokers believed the company is paying more than $90m per ship.
GOCC was formed in July last year to ship Chinese car exports.
The Chinese automobile export market is snowballing. According to the China Automobile Association, the country overtook Germany as the world’s second-largest auto exporter.
The Far Eastern nation exported more than 3m finished cars last year — an increase of 54.4% year on year, due to the shortage of overseas supply and the substantial increase in the export competitiveness of Chinese automobile enterprises.
Some analysts think China may overtake Japan in the next few years to be the world’s largest auto exporter.
GOCC is also due to take delivery of six 7,500-ceu PCTC newbuildings from Xiamen Shipbuilding between 2025 and 2026.
It has chartered the six vessels from Japanese owner Santoku Senpaku under long-term contracts of more than 10 years.
Including GOCC’s three-ship order, GSI’s orderbook for PCTC newbuildings stands at 22 units.
It is constructing seven newbuildings for South Korea’s H-Line Shipping; four for John Fredriksen-backed SFL Corp; two for domestic electric-vehicle (EV) maker BYD and six for Cosco Shipping Specialised Carriers.
