Car Carriers Target Heavy Lift

Amid the deepening slump in the automobile market, car carriers are focusing more of their marketing efforts on oversize, non-automobile cargo to fill the empty space on their vessels’ decks.

While they have always carried regular amounts of oversize, non-automobile cargo, the carriers are going after the “high and heavy” segment of the breakbulk trade with a vengeance in the hope that the growth in project and heavy-lift cargo will sustain them until the auto trade recovers.

Pure car-truck carriers that handle automobiles and other vehicles are tailor-made to transport heavy or oversize cargo because of their reinforced ramps and decks. In addition, the decks on newer ships can be moved up and down hydraulically. The number of decks varies from eight to 13 levels, and can be quickly reconfigured to five or six levels to accommodate the size and overhead clearance of high-and-heavy and other cargo.

The newfound availability of space on the car carriers has given project cargo shippers a supply of new capacity in a market that was short on space until the end of last year. Unlike most of the multipurpose vessels that are often chartered on an ad-hoc basis for individual projects, car carriers provide regular scheduled liner services for automobiles.

“We’re looking even closer at heavy-lift now to see if there are other openings where we can penetrate and participate given the contraction of the auto market,” said Christopher Connor, president of the Americas region for Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, the joint Norwegian-Swedish car carrier.

He said all segments of the business are down, but in percentage terms, the heavy-lift segment, agricultural and mining equipment are holding up better than the auto trade. The Australian market for mining equipment has remained strong because of the high price of metals.

Car carriers are very competitive with other types of breakbulk operators “when you have big projects that require liner service, by which I mean scheduled departure and scheduled arrival that can meet contractual construction dates,” Connor said.

But they can’t compete with other breakbulk vessel operators “when you’re dealing with huge plant developments and the business you are competing against is contract-type operators who put the tonnage in at a private berth and can wait.”

All the car carriers are competing for the high-and-heavy trade.