China’s booming car-export industry has driven shipping rates to record highs
…but now rates are falling at last.
There’s probably never been a better time to be in the business of shipping cars across the world than the past couple of years, with freighters carrying 6,500+ cars earning as much as $115,000 every day as recently as March, data from Clarkson Research Service via Bloomberg shows.
The ultra-lucrative period for companies in car cargo might be coming to an end, though, as the international vehicle-carrying fleet continues to grow and begins to outstrip demand going into the year ahead.
In November, earnings for car-carrying ships fell to $95,000 a day — obviously a still substantial figure and way above the prepandemic 21st-century peak, but the first time that the rate has fallen below $100,000 a day since September 2022.
Interestingly, the heightened rates — and the short supply of car-carrying vessels that bore them — saw Chinese EV giant BYD decide to get into the vehicle-shipping business itself, with the first ship in its fleet (the BYD Explorer No. 1) embarking on her maiden voyage at the start of 2024, when daily shipping rates hovered around the $115K-a-day mark.
Chinese companies have been behind much of the explosion in demand for shipping as the country has swiftly ramped up its own production and distribution capabilities, becoming the world’s largest exporter of cars this year, thanks in part to its booming EV industry, which sold 1.7 million vehicles abroad in 2024.
Zooming out: Even with the threat of tariffs, the sheer volume of stuff we’re shipping across oceans has been hitting record highs this year.
