That's pushing vertical integration to extremes. Is there any precedent to car carriers dedicated to one manufacturer? Wikipedia mentions a "Toyota Maru No. 10" which was NOT owned by Toyota - although I don't know if it was dedicated to them.
Not exclusively cars but Hyundai got into the game early, buying pure car carriers in the 80’s:
https://www.maritimegateway.com/volkswagen-group-orders-lng-...
These are also not owned by VW Logistics, but on long-term lease to them.
Note this is the similar for several BYD RoRo carriers, e.g. the BYD Explorer No.1 and BYD Changzhou are owned by Zodiac Maritime and chartered by/leased to BYD.
As to why a UK-based shipping company owned by a Israeli billionaire based in Monaco buys RoRo carriers from a Chinese shipyard, and then leases them back to a Chinese car maker, I don't know. But I'm also quite curious about the regulatory and financing-related incentives and money flows involved. I'm aware this kind of setup is called a "Non-operating owner" and is fairly common.
Okay fair enough thank you. The article points at just Volkswagen running 9 car carriers just for the north atlantic.
And BYD have been at it for a while, so time for a wholly owned one I guess.
> As to why a UK-based shipping company owned by a Israeli billionaire based in Monaco buys RoRo carriers from a Chinese shipyard, and then leases them back to a Chinese car maker, I don't know.
That's good. No idea if that's the reason, but that would be an easy way to invest in BYD while mostly not being subject to Chinese direct investing legal requirements and problems.
> Is there any precedent to car carriers dedicated to one manufacturer?
General Motors helped design the Vert-A-Pac. https://chevyvega.fandom.com/wiki/Vert-A-Pac