GCC pushes car carrier orderbook to 22 ships with two more newbuilds

MSC-controlled Global Car Carriers has ordered two more 8,600 ceu LNG dual-fuel car carriers, taking a newbuilding programme that stood at 12 ships in July to 22 — a near-doubling in roughly half a year.

The Oslo-based owner booked the pair at Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard, with both vessels due in 2030. They appear in the fleet register as Viking NB 21 and Viking NB 22. No price has been disclosed.

The numbers are now considerable. GCC's orderbook runs to eighteen 8,600 ceu pure car and truck carriers plus four 7,000 ceu units — 182,800 vehicles of combined capacity, all of it at Chinese yards, delivering between 2028 and 2030. For scale, that's enough slots to carry the entire annual output of a mid-sized assembly plant in a single sailing, many times over.

What does the ordering spree change for shippers?

Plenty, if you move vehicles by sea. The tonnage lands just as the car carrier market digests its own capacity cycle. Shippers on Asian export lanes get a deep-pocketed owner with new, LNG dual-fuel tonnage arriving from 2028 — helpful for fleet-emissions accounting and for avoiding the ageing-vessel squeeze that has flared periodically since 2021.

For competitors, the read is less comfortable. MSC's entry, via the roughly $700m takeover of Oslo-listed Gram Car Carriers in 2024, has converted a mid-sized Norwegian owner into a fleet-expansion machine. Gram went private and was renamed Global Car Carriers earlier this year.

Forwarders and charterers should note the pace. As recently as July, GCC had 12 newbuildings lined up. Weeks later it added eight 8,600 ceu ships at China Merchants' Weihai yard, Guangzhou Shipyard International and Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding, lifting the programme to 20 vessels worth more than $2bn. Two more have followed within weeks.

A yard strategy that mirrors the parent

The latest deal also brings a new builder into GCC's circle — one already familiar to the Aponte-controlled group. Zhoushan Changhong is a major shipbuilding partner of parent MSC, holding a string of LNG dual-fuel containership contracts including a series of 21,700 teu vessels.

So MSC is effectively extending an existing yard relationship into a new cargo segment. That usually means negotiated pricing, reliable delivery slots and less friction than cold-starting with an unfamiliar yard. It also deepens the group's exposure to Chinese newbuilding capacity, now the sole source of GCC's entire orderbook.

The fuel choice matters too. LNG dual-fuel across all 22 ships signals a bet that compliance pressure on car carriers — increasingly chartered by automakers with their own emissions targets — will reward owners who can offer cleaner tonnage from day one.

The trajectory from here

Ten ships added to an orderbook in under six months is not incremental fleet renewal. It's a statement of intent from an owner whose parent has already reshaped container shipping's orderbook league table.

Deliveries run 2028 to 2030, so the market has time to adjust. But with GCC's capacity arriving in 8,600 ceu blocks and more Chinese yard slots evidently on friendly terms, further additions to the programme before the first hull hits the water wouldn't surprise anyone watching MSC's form.

By Amara Osei