The Load Star — 2026-08-03
Maritime and Ports
Charter rates for modern car-carriers are moving towards the $100,000-a-day mark again, powered by rising demand for Chinese electric vehicle exports.
While VesselsValue shows average charter rates for car-carriers at around $67,000 a day, new vessels can command a higher rate.
Last week, Atlas EMF, a joint venture between Greek shipowner Atlas Maritime and European Maritime Finance, chartered the 7,000 ceu Clean Star to an unnamed Chinese operator for two years at $80,000 a day, prior to its expected delivery from CIMC Raffles Shipyard this month.
Atlas CEO Leon Patitsas said: “This agreement reflects the exceptional quality of the vessel, the continued confidence of leading operators in our fleet, and the strong fundamentals of the global vehicle carrier market.”
In March, another of Atlas EMF’s new car-carriers, the 7,000 ceu Eco Star, was fixed to Wallenius Wilhelmsen for a year at $53,000 a day, shortly after delivery.
The spike in charter rates within five months highlights how demand is strengthening for modern vehicle carriers. SAIC Anji Logistics, the shipping arm of SAIC Motor, recently chartered Eastern Pacific Shipping’s newly built 7,060 ceu car carrier Lake Rotorua for $90,000 a day, shortly after delivery by China Merchants Jinling Shipyard, Nanjing.
Car-carrier charter rates hit $100,000 a day in August 2022, before “normalising” in late 2024 as record numbers of newbuildings were delivered. Now, China’s vehicle exports are on a bull run, fuelling demand for ships to carry them.
China Association of Automobile Manufacturers’ statistics show nearly 5.1m vehicles exported during the first six months, up 65.3% year on year. New energy vehicle exports exceeded 2.3m units, more than double last year.
In June, vehicle exports reached 1.037m, up 75% from a year ago, marking the first time China’s monthly automobile exports exceeded one million units.
With tonnage tight, even older car-carriers can command a decent charter rate. Two belonging to SFL, the 6,500 ceu SFL Composer and SFL Conductor, built in 2005 and 2006 respectively, were fixed to Cosco at around $40,000 a day for 34 months.
Demand for tonnage is also reviving newbuilding orders for car-carriers, after only nine were commissioned last year.
So far in 2026, at least 40 have been ordered. MSC’s car-carrier arm, Global Car Carriers, has commissioned ten LNG dual-fuelled car-carriers, comprising six at 8,600 ceu and four of 7,000 ceu, for delivery between 2028 and 2030. The larger ships will be built by China Merchants Heavy Industry Yizheng, while the others will be equally split between CMHI Weihai and Guangzhou Shipyard International.
The rising market has also attracted an opportunistic newcomer, China-based Zhongnan Shipping, which has ordered four 5,700 ceu car-carriers at Jiangsu Runyang Shipbuilding for delivery between 2028 and 2029.