All workshops of the SERES Liangjiang Intelligent factory are vibrant scenes of workers and robots making the most of every minute to carry out production. (File picture, photographed by Liu Niyi / Visual Chongqing)

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- The car export business in China has been showing strength this year. The data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that in the first quarter, China exported 1.07 million cars, surpassing Japan to become the largest car exporter in the world. The auto companies in China exported 376,000 vehicles in April, continuing to grow strongly.

Chongqing is an important domestic automobile production base in China, and how does it perform? The reporter visited several major automobile manufacturers and learned that Changan Auto exported more than 90,000 cars from January to March this year, and SERES, LIVAN Auto, and Hongyan showed an increase in the oversea sales of cars. 10% of the national automobile exports were made in Chongqing.

Find new territory in overseas markets

Many automobile manufacturers in Chongqing have made breakthroughs in overseas market development, and the scale and structure of product export show many bright spots.

Changan Auto, for example, showed a rapid increase in its exports to Central Europe and Central Asia this year, with its export volume exceeding the total of last year, up nearly 10%. It is worth mentioning that the product sales of the self-owned brands of Changan Auto in overseas markets exceeded 75,000 units between January and April, up 16.7% yearly, growing much faster than joint venture enterprises and occupying the majority of the sales of automobiles in overseas markets.

SERES also came with good news. The electric vehicles of the company have successfully established their markets in South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. At present, SERES mainly exports SERES 3, SERES 5, DFSK E5, and DFSK Glory 500 to South America, Europe, North Africa, Asia, etc., and fuel passenger vehicles, mini commercial vehicles, and electric vehicles to France, Germany, and Italy. It also leads the way in the export volume of mini commercial vehicles in the industry in China.

The export of cars has become a new engine for the development of local industries, said the head of a related department in Liangjiang New Area. Liangjiang New Area abounds with automobile enterprises, with 7.8 billion yuan (up 53%) in imports and exports for the past four months, increasing the overall competitiveness of Chongqing’s automobile industry in international markets.

Establish more overseas manufacturing bases in the future

The rapid growth of China's car exports is driven not only by the demand of the overseas market but also by the positive actions of Chinese automobile enterprises.

Affected by the epidemic, regional conflicts, and other factors, some overseas markets have suffered from insufficient automobile production and supply in recent years. In addition, Europe has accelerated energy saving and emission reduction, increasing the demand for new-energy vehicles. Therefore, Chongqing and other domestic automobile manufacturers seize these opportunities to open up overseas markets.

Changan Auto released its Vast Ocean Plan at its auto show in Shanghai on April 18, clearly stating that by 2030, Changan Auto will invest over $10 billion to launch no less than 60 types of global products and achieve annual sales of more than 1.2 million units in overseas markets.

Moreover, Changan Auto will focus on building a production base in Thailand and invest 4 billion yuan to build a global production base for right-hand drive vehicles, with an initial capacity of 100,000 units and a doubling capacity for the second phase. Changan Auto will also establish manufacturing bases in Europe and America, with an estimated capacity of over 500,000 units overseas in the future.

At the 2023 SERES Overseas Business Conference held in April this year, SERES had in-depth exchanges with more than 200 industry representatives from more than 50 countries and regions around the world to seek global markets.

Sources from SERES introduced that in January this year, the company launched its strategic new-energy model, SERES 5, at the Brussels Motor Show in Belgium, and it is the first new-energy vehicle released overseas by a Chinese automobile enterprise in 2023.

The European market has a strong interest in our new cars, according to SERES. At the Brussels Motor Show, SERES signed contracts with more than 20 partners and received orders for more than 20,000 new vehicles.

Open channels to boost car exports

In the view of many in the industry, the success of Chongqing-made car exports cannot be achieved without the open environment created by local governments. The well-developed and increasing open channels represented by the new western land-sea corridor and Yangtze River Golden Waterway offers an important boost to the export of Chongqing-made cars.

Recently, a train of the new western land-sea corridor carrying SERES new-energy vehicles departed Guoyuan Port in Liangjiang New Area and arrived at Qinzhou Port in Guangxi to board the ship. This is the first rail-sea intermodal train for new-energy vehicles along the new western land-sea corridor, as well as the new channel for the export of new-energy vehicles in the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.

Compared with the traditional river-sea intermodal transport, the new western land-sea corridor saves 10 to 20 days of logistics time and effectively helps expand new overseas markets for the company, said Zhang Xingyan, general manager of the overseas business division of CERES. Usually, it takes 30 days to transport products to Indonesia through river-sea intermodal transport but it takes only 18 days along the new western land-sae corridor.

Water transport is also an important option for car companies. The Chongqing branch of SGMW has shipped more than 650,000 vehicles to the global market through roll-on and roll-off transportation at Guoyuan Port since it started production in 2014.

Li Anle, head of the vehicle logistics department, said that water transport has certain advantages in terms of freight price and volume compared with other modes of transport. Their exported cars transported by water occupy about 34 percent of the total number of vehicles exported by water, and they will further improve transportation efficiency this year.

Huang Bin, deputy general manager of Chongqing Fruitland Ro-Ro Terminal Co., Ltd. said that since the beginning of this year, major car companies have increased the volume of water shipments, and the throughput of the terminal has increased by about 10 percent. (Translated by Yuki, Fathom Language Limited)