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Aerial view of Shanghai Port in Baoshan district, Shanghai Photo: VCG

Shanghai Port completed automobile roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) throughput of 3.63 million vehicles in 2024, an increase of 15 percent year-on-year. The port's auto throughput jumped to the world's No.1 spot for the first time, according to China Media Group (CMG) on Tuesday. 

Shanghai Port has 15 international automobile ro-ro routes, reaching 289 ports in 131 countries and regions, according to CMG.

The latest news came as ports across China are ramping up their ro-ro capacity to better facilitate the nation's fast-growing vehicle trade.

Last year, the country exported 5.859 million vehicles, surging 19.3 percent year-on-year, further consolidating its position as the world's top automobile exporter, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) in January.

Zheng Ping, chief analyst at industry portal Chineseport.cn, told the Global Times on Tuesday that Chinese ports' capacity to handle automobile trade has expanded rapidly in the past few years amid the explosive growth of Chinese auto exports, which is driven by strong growth in new-energy vehicles (NEVs).

"It can be said that China faces no port infrastructure bottlenecks and the swift expansion at various ports has effectively underpinned China's auto export growth," Zheng said, noting that the change is all market-driven as Chinese NEVs are much sought after in many parts of the world despite protectionist headwinds in some markets.

Amid the strong growth trends, many Chinese ports, not just Shanghai, will enjoy more prominent spots in the ranking of ro-ro ports in the near future, Zheng predicted.

Shanghai, which is home to Tesla's Gigafactory, is not the only port in China developing its automobile handling capacity in recent years.

Starting from 2020, the Nansha automobile terminal of Port of Guangzhou, the world's fifth-largest port, has steadily expanded its capacity to include seven berths capable of accommodating ro-ro ships displacing up to 70,000 tons with a parking depot of 1.6 million square meters, according to a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday by port authorities. In 2024, NEV exports from the ro-ro terminal soared by 23.2 percent year-on-year and shipping links reached 30 countries and regions.

The terminal will never be "jammed", facilitating auto exports for companies based in China, per the statement.

The automobile terminal in Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, East China's Zhejiang Province, handled 239,000 cars for export in 2024, a sharp annual increase of 40.7 percent, according to a post by the local commerce bureau.

In Port of Tianjin, auto exports reached 640,000 units in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 25 percent, local news portal tjbh.com reported, citing local customs.

China's NEV industry has posted record performances amid industrial transformation and strong demand for green transportation. NEV production and sales both exceeded 10 million units for the first time in 2024 and accounted for over 40 percent of total sales, data from the CAAM showed.