Global demand rises for domestic-brand vehicles

Officials said at least two vessels carrying vehicles have been leaving Nansha Port in Guangzhou every week for foreign ports.

At Shenzhen's Yantian Port, Customs declaration procedures were recently completed for 150 BYD new energy cars destined for Oslo, Norway, according to officials.

More than 3.6 billion yuan ($524.1 million) in new energy vehicles from the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone were sold to other nations and regions in the first two months, Customs officials said. The city's exports of new energy vehicles registered year-on-year growth of 2,300 percent in the January-February period, officials said, as COVID-19 control regulations were optimized.

Nansha Automobile Port, at the mouth of the Pearl River, has become the largest cluster of terminals for roll-on, roll-off specialty ships for wheeled cargo in South China, with seven 10,000-metric-ton dedicated berths for vehicle shipments.

The terminal clusters for the cargo ships include a commercial vehicle storage yard covering nearly 1.6 million square meters along its 1.8 kilometers of wharf coastline.

Nansha Automobile Port has established a total of seven automobile export routes, covering multiple countries in the Middle East, Europe, South America and Southeast Asia, according to Lu Chunrong, manager of the Business Development Department of Nansha Automobile Port. That has led more than 10 automobile brands, including Chevrolet, Chang'an, Geely and Chery, to ship their vehicles to the rest of the world from Nansha, Lu said.

To meet growing demand from the vehicle export business, the port will add Hong Kong and Macao berthing and international transit services to help further promote the export business of domestic new energy vehicles from Nansha in the coming months, Lu said.

Guangzhou Customs has further simplified procedures for vehicle exports this year to boost the development of the country's new energy and intelligent vehicle industries, said Li Lixiang, an official with Nansha Customs.

"Quick and convenient Customs clearance procedures, including a 24-hour reservation Customs clearance service, for the export of complete vehicles and core parts have been implemented to encourage domestic vehicle enterprises to increase their presence in global markets," he said.

As of March 21, the number of cars declared for export in the Nansha area of China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone so far this year had exceeded 39,000, a year-on-year increase of over 1.6 times, according to Customs.

Most of the vehicles have been exported to more than 10 countries and regions, including Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand, Guangzhou Customs said.