Shipping firms scramble to meet demand as China boosts car exports

Shipping companies are rushing to refresh their fleets of car-carrying ships to cash in on a rise in demand. Roll-on/roll-off ships, known as ro-ros, can be hundreds of metres long and transport upwards of 8,000 cars each. A boom in auto manufacturing in China has seen demand for these ships grow as Chinese firms look to export cheaper vehicles. Shipping Watch reports that work will start on 229 new car-carriers worth more than $20 billion in the next few years, representing 42 per cent of the current global fleet and enough to carry 1.8 million cars at once. That’s up from just 15 such carriers in 2021. New UN carbon emissions guidelines rank ships on the amount of CO2 they produce at maximum capacity. Newer ships rank better on this scale, so shipping companies are replacing their fleets to sail faster and avoid penalties. But if the ships themselves are better for the environment, the increasing demand for them to travel further and more often is not.