Auto & Transportation

According to customs data, in the first quarter of this year, China exported 1.07 million vehicles, surpassing Japan for the first time and becoming the world's largest automobile exporter. The significant growth of automobile exports has driven international automobile transport ships to become difficult to obtain, and shipping companies and car companies have stepped in to book ships. Before, no domestic shipyard was able to build large auto Roll-on/roll-off ships, but now, Chinese shipbuilding enterprises are seizing the rare market opportunity to achieve a breakthrough of zero. China took on 88.4% of the global orders for 74 car transport ships last year.

Difficulty in Holding Orders and Going to Sea: China's Automobile Exports Are Hot for Shipbuilding in the Tropical Zone

Taicang Port in Jiangsu, 60 kilometers away from the mouth of the Yangtze River, is the largest foreign trade port in Jiangsu. On May 23rd, a huge ro/ro cargo ship arrived at port, with over 130 vehicle dockers on standby and over 4300 vehicles about to be loaded onto the ship for shipment to Europe.

Behind the overload and busyness of the shuttle workers is the explosive increase in China's automobile exports in recent years. According to customs data, in 2020, China exported 1.082 million vehicles; By 2021, it will reach 2.015 million vehicles; In 2022, it reached 3.111 million vehicles. In the first quarter of this year, China exported 1.07 million vehicles, surpassing Japan for the first time and becoming the world's largest automobile exporter.

With the surge in car exports, the "troubles" of happiness have followed. Car transport ships are difficult to find in one cabin, and the rent has repeatedly reached new highs. In order to increase transportation capacity, it can be said that "the Eight Immortals cross the sea, each displaying their divine abilities". The freight company at Taicang Port in Jiangsu even renovated the pulp ship from South America, which was originally supposed to return empty, to transform the pulp ship that was originally out of stock into a car transport ship.

Liu Tiebin, Operations Manager of Taicang International Container Terminal Operations Department, said that each hatch can reach a loading capacity of 8 layers, with a maximum capacity of 2500 vehicles for the entire ship.

But even so, it still cannot meet the rapidly growing demand for automobile export transportation.

Port of Guangzhou is also busy transporting cars. Nansha Automobile Port of Port of Guangzhou is the largest professional automobile ro ro terminal in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area. According to customs data, in 2022, the number of foreign trade export vehicles of Port of Guangzhou will exceed 100000, with a year-on-year growth of more than 300%. According to customs data, Port of Guangzhou's auto foreign trade exports increased by more than 90% year on year from January to April this year.

It is understood that there are approximately 700 automobile transport ships worldwide, and those operated by Chinese shipowners account for less than 10% of the total global transportation capacity. Compared to the continuous blowout of automobile exports, there is clearly a serious shortage of transportation capacity. In order to make up for this "weakness", shipping companies are intensifying their layout, and many shipping and automobile manufacturing companies have taken the initiative to book ships.

From zero to one, the key technologies for Chinese ships to crack large automobile Roll-on/roll-off

At Guangzhou Shipbuilding International, the reporter boarded a car Roll-on/roll-off ship that can hold about 7000 cars. This car transport ship has a total length of 200 meters, a molded width of 38 meters, a total height of 42 meters, and 13 decks, making it a "giant" at sea. To the surprise of the reporter, this "giant" had a very thin skin.

The steel plate used to build this car Roll-on/roll-off is only 6mm thick, less than one-third of the diameter of a nickel, and the weight of a car is more than one ton. At the same time, in order to facilitate the transportation of cars, the car transport ship adopts a column structure inside the cabin, lacking a "load-bearing wall", which puts forward strict requirements for the stability of the deck.

To ensure the stability of the thin plate, workers will weld rows of longitudinal bones and T-beams on the thin plate. In order to ensure the stability of the T-beam, they also specially designed a set of "anti deformation" processes. Under the guidance of the engineer, the workers heated some parts of the T-beam with a spray gun. Under the action of Thermal expansion, the T-shaped beam becomes an arc structure with high middle and low sides.

To build a ship that is truly suitable for automobile transportation, there are also enormous challenges in internal structural design. There are 126 movable decks for 7000 standard parking spaces for motor transport ships, while there are only 20 to 30 movable decks for Ro Ro passenger ships of the same specification. A large number of movable decks pose great challenges to design, installation, and debugging.

To solve this problem, R&D personnel need to create 3D models as small as a steel wire rope or a screw, with the threads on the bolts clearly visible.

According to customs data, since 2021, China State Shipbuilding Corporation has received 35 orders of 7000 to 9200 vehicle series motor transport ships, accounting for 27% of the global market share. In the field of large-scale automobile transportation ship manufacturing, the Chinese shipbuilding industry has achieved a historic leap from catching up to parallel operation.