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▲ Incipient 5 hours ago

Vertically integrating. Not as subtle as I'd have expected, but still sensible.

▲creer 3 hours ago | parent [-]

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.

▲markrages 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> 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

▲creer 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Cool engineering, thank you.

▲richardw 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not exclusively cars but Hyundai got into the game early, buying pure car carriers in the 80’s:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMM_(company)

▲sho_hn an hour ago | parent [-]

Sorta makes sense -- the first time Germany noticed Korea in the 80s is when their shipyards started outbidding the German ones.

▲sho_hn 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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.

▲creer 2 hours ago | parent [-]

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.