Höegh Autoliners has formally signed a contract with China Merchants Group for six additional Aurora Class car carriers, expanding its fleet renewal programme to 18 vessels and extending deliveries through 2031. The deal keeps China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu), or CMHI, as the sole builder of the largest zero-carbon-ready PCTC newbuilding programme in deep-sea shipping.

Executives signed the contract at a high-level meeting in Naples, attended by Leif O. Høegh, Chair of Höegh Autoliners, CEO Andreas Enger, and Miao Jianmin, Chairman of China Merchants Group. The six new dual-fuel LNG vessels will be delivered between 2029 and 2031.

The commercial core of the order is capacity and flexibility. Höegh Autoliners has secured an option for four additional vessels on the same terms and reserved construction slots for a further four. That structure lets the Norwegian operator scale the Aurora programme to as many as 26 vessels — a significant hedge in a segment where shipbuilding slots for large PCTCs are increasingly scarce and dominated by Chinese yards.

What does the Aurora Class deliver?

Each Aurora Class vessel carries up to 9,100 cars and cuts carbon emissions per transported car by up to 58 per cent compared with conventional PCTCs. The ships carry DNV's ammonia-ready and methanol-ready notations, meaning owners can convert them to run on future zero-carbon fuels rather than scrap tonnage when those fuels become commercially available.

CMHI has already delivered Aurora Class vessels into commercial operation and will build all 18 vessels in the expanded programme. For shippers of vehicles and rolling cargo — automakers facing their own emissions reporting requirements — the fleet offers verifiable carbon intensity reductions per unit moved, an increasingly tender-relevant metric.

Why the timing matters

Höegh framed the investment as a decision with decades-long consequences. Vessels ordered today will define the industry's emissions profile well into the 2040s, and the company said shipping "has no alternative but to reduce emissions."

Leif O. Høegh, Chair of the Board of Directors, said: "We are investing in the vessels that will define our fleet for decades and help move our industry towards zero emissions." He noted the company has "developed, adapted and led the way through major changes in shipping" for nearly 100 years.

CEO Andreas Enger took a broader position on the deal's strategic weight: "This is not just another vessel-building agreement. It is a statement about the future of deep-sea shipping and the role we intend to play in shaping it. By expanding the programme to 18 vessels, we are securing efficient, flexible and future-ready capacity while setting the pace towards zero-emission operations."

Miao Jianmin, Chairman of China Merchants Group, positioned the deal as an alliance between two century-old companies. "Our subsidiary China Merchants Shipbuilding Industry has world-class PCTC manufacturing capabilities and product quality, ranking No. 1 globally in market share," he said. "The cooperation between our two sides is a strong alliance between two century-old enterprises."

CMG itself traces its history back 154 years and now operates across ports, shipping, logistics and shipbuilding.

A century marker in 2027

The signing builds on long-term industrial cooperation between Höegh Autoliners and CMHI, and it lands ahead of a symbolic date: Höegh Autoliners celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2027. Miao Jianmin offered advance congratulations, calling Höegh "a leading company in the global RoRo shipping sector."

For carriers and forwarders in the vehicle and ro-ro trades, the message in the numbers is straightforward: Höegh is locking in modern, fuel-flexible deep-sea capacity through 2031, with optionality up to 26 vessels — positioning it to meet tightening emissions rules without depending on secondhand tonnage or retrofit economics.