Li Cha, a welder, said he was doing 12-hour shifts with a two-hour break at midday to bicycle home for lunch. The frenzy was visible last Friday at the Jinling Shipyard, where workers have nearly finished two car-carrying ships for Eastern Pacific Shipping of Singapore. Shipyards up and down the Yangtze River, with thousands of workers, clang and rattle from dawn until far into the night. Before China’s auto export boom, only four a year were being ordered, said Daniel Nash, head of vehicle carriers at VesselsValue, a London shipping data firm. “They are building cars a lot faster than they are building ships,” said Michael Dunne, a former president of General Motors Indonesia.Ĭhinese automakers like BYD and Chery, and the European and Singaporean shipping lines that transport cars for them, have placed almost all of the orders now pending worldwide for 170 car-carrying vessels. China has also expanded exports quickly to Mexico and Britain, and is beginning to increase shipments to Belgium and Spain, which have important car-unloading ports that serve as a gateway to other European Union countries.Ī lack of ships has held China back from exporting even more. In Australia, Chinese automakers have passed South Korean rivals in sales, and are catching up with Japanese competitors. Local governments in China also give the companies nearly free land, loans at near-zero interest and other subsidies.Īfter years of quality gains and technology improvements, Chinese cars, even ones with out-of-fashion combustion engines, are turning heads at industry events like the Munich auto show this week. Steel and electronics used in cars are cheap in China, giving automakers here an advantage. “Why have they driven into exports? Because they have to - what are you going to do, close a factory?” said Bill Russo, a former CEO of Chrysler China who is now CEO of Automobility, a Shanghai consultancy.Īll over the world, Chinese automakers are taking market share. They have responded by sending more than 4 million cars this year to foreign markets, at bargain prices. The result is an immense supply of gasoline-powered models that Chinese consumers no longer want but that still sell abroad.Ĭhinese carmakers are stuck with unused factory capacity to build about 15 million gasoline-powered cars a year. When Chinese households buy cars, they increasingly choose electric vehicles from local manufacturers, which lead global production of EVs.
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