China’s vehicle export boom is increasingly spilling beyond traditional car carriers and into the container shipping sector as demand outpaces available Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) capacity. A recent COSCO Shipping operation moved 13,052 Chery vehicles from Taicang Port, China, to Vado, Italy, using containers and multipurpose vessel capacity, with each shipment carrying more than 4,350 vehicles, roughly equivalent to a medium-sized car carrier. The shift reflects the rapid expansion of China’s automotive exports, which reached 6.14 million vehicles in the first seven months of 2026, a 66.8% year-over-year increase, including 2.91 million new-energy vehicles. Analysts estimate that containers and other non-PCTC vessel types could transport around two million vehicles in 2026, double the volume carried in 2025, highlighting how container shipping is becoming an increasingly important and flexible component of China’s growing multimodal vehicle export logistics network.
