In the first quarter of this year, my country exported 1.07 million automobiles, surpassing Japan for the first time and becoming the world's largest automobile exporter. The sharp increase in automobile exports has led to "hard to find a cabin" for international automobile carriers, and shipping companies and automobile companies have made orders to book ships. In the past, no shipyard in China was able to build large-scale car ro-ro ships, but now, Chinese shipbuilding companies are seizing rare market opportunities and achieving zero breakthroughs. Of the 74 orders for car carriers in the world last year, China took up 88.4% of the tonnage.
Shipwreck with orders in hand China's auto export boom brings shipbuilding boom
Taicang Port, Jiangsu, 60 kilometers away from the mouth of the Yangtze River, is the largest foreign trade port in Jiangsu. On May 23, a huge ro-ro cargo ship arrived in Hong Kong. More than 130 vehicle operators were on standby. More than 4,300 vehicles were about to be loaded on the ship and sent to Europe.
Behind the overloaded and busy operators is the surge in my country's auto exports in recent years. According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2020, my country's auto exports will reach 1.082 million; in 2021, it will reach 2.015 million; in 2022, it will reach 3.111 million. In the first quarter of this year, my country exported 1.07 million automobiles, surpassing Japan for the first time and becoming the world's largest automobile exporter.
With the surge in car exports, happy "troubles" follow. It is "difficult to find a cabin" for car carriers, and the rent has repeatedly hit new highs. In order to increase the transportation capacity, it can be said that "Eight Immortals cross the sea, each showing their magical powers". The freight company in Jiangsu Taicang Port even transformed the pulp ship from South America that was supposed to return empty, turning the pulp ship, which had no cargo available, into a car carrier.
Liu Tiebin, Operation Director of the Operation Department of Taicang International Container Terminal: Each hatch can have a loading capacity of 8 floors, and the maximum capacity of the whole ship is 2,500 vehicles.
But even this is still unable to meet the rapidly growing demand for export transportation of automobiles.
Guangzhou Port is also busy exporting cars. Guangzhou Port Nansha Automobile Port is the largest professional automobile ro-ro terminal in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In 2022, Guangzhou Port will export more than 100,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of more than 300%. From January to April this year, the export of automobiles in Guangzhou Port increased by more than 90% year-on-year.
It is understood that there are more than 700 car carriers in the world, and those operated by Chinese shipowners account for less than 10% of the world's total shipping capacity. Compared with the continuous blowout automobile export situation, it is obvious that the transportation capacity is seriously insufficient. In order to make up for this "short board", shipping companies are stepping up their deployment, and many shipping companies and automobile manufacturers have ordered ships.
From zero to one Chinese ships crack the key technology of large car ro-ro ships
At Guangzhou Shipbuilding International, the reporter boarded a car-ro-ro ship that can carry about 7,000 cars. This car carrier has a total length of 200 meters, a molded width of 38 meters, a total height of 42 meters, and 13 decks. It can be called a "giant" at sea. To the reporter's surprise, this "Big Mac" has a very thin "skin".
The steel plate used to build this car ro-ro ship is only 6 mm thick and less than one-third of the diameter of a five-cent coin, and a car weighs more than one ton. At the same time, in order to facilitate the driving of cars, the car carrier adopts a column structure in the cabin and lacks a "load-bearing wall", which imposes strict requirements on the stability of the deck.
In order to ensure the stability of the thin plate, workers will weld rows of longitudinals 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" process. Under the guidance of the engineer, the worker uses a spray gun to heat part of the T-beam. Under the action of thermal expansion and contraction, the T-beam becomes an arc-shaped structure with a high middle and low sides.
In order to build a ship that is truly suitable for car transportation, it is necessary to face a huge challenge in the design of the internal structure. A car carrier with 7,000 standard parking spaces has 126 movable decks, while a ro-ro passenger ship of the same specification has only 20 to 30 movable decks. A large number of movable decks bring great challenges to design, installation and commissioning.
In order to solve this problem, when making a 3D model, the R&D personnel have to model as small as a wire rope or a screw, and the threads on the bolts are clearly visible.
From 2021 to the present, China State Shipbuilding Corporation has undertaken a total of 35 orders for 7,000 to 9,200-vehicle series car carriers, accounting for 27% of the global market share. In the field of large-scale car carrier ship manufacturing, China's shipbuilding industry has achieved a historic leap from catching up to running in parallel.
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