China is building new ships at record pace to turbocharge its car exports

Chinese shipyards are building large new car transport vessels at an unprecedented pace as China looks to gain greater control over global shipping and help electric vehicle makers such as BYD drive forward their overseas expansion.

The latest hulking ship – capable of carrying 8,600 cars – was reportedly assembled and delivered in just 200 days by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co, with the company delivering the new vessel on Thursday.

The nearly 200-metre-long ro-ro – or “roll on/roll off” – vessel will be operated by a subsidiary of the state-owned conglomerate COSCO, which plans to use the ship to haul Chinese-made cars from Shanghai to ports across Europe on its maiden voyage.

It is part of a broader Chinese strategy to create its own shipping fleet to transport cars around the world, ensuring that China’s carmakers have stable access to transport capacity as they seek to ramp up their exports.

The new vessel is “the largest ship operated by a Chinese shipowner, marking a key step in the strategy of ‘national vehicles and national transport’”, said Li Gang, the Communist Party chief of the ship’s owner, China Citic Financial Leasing, in an official statement.

The latest delivery suggests that China’s shipbuilders are continuing to make progress in terms of efficiency and technological sophistication.