COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers plans a massive fleet expansion by adding over 80 vessels with various functions in the next two years.
According to China Daily, COSCO’s expansion is driven by China’s upgrading and diversification of foreign trade products. The new ships will include 24 car carriers, 20 pulp carriers, and several heavy lifting ships, aiming to increase the company’s fleet capacity to over 10 million deadweight tons by 2026. Most of the new vessel orders have been placed with domestic shipbuilders like Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co Ltd and Chengxi Shipyard (Yangzhou) Co Ltd.
Huang Nan, the president of COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers, highlighted the company’s commitment to following global trends in industrial and supply chain development. As one of the world’s largest specialized shipping operators, the company currently owns more than 140 vessels.
In 2023, COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers transported 248,000 passenger vehicles for export, marking a 228% year-on-year increase, with 86,000 of them being new energy vehicles.
The expansion of COSCO’s fleet and China’s robust foreign trade growth, which expanded 8.7% year-on-year to 6.61 trillion yuan ($914 billion) in the first two months of the year, demonstrate China’s increasing competitiveness in areas like electric vehicles, trains, construction machinery, wind turbines, and photovoltaic products, China Daily informs.
