News / BYD signs major PCTC cooperation deal with Hyundai Glovis

China’s BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle maker, has signed an agreement with South Korean pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) and forwarder Hyundai Glovis.

They will cooperate on moving some of Hyundai Motor’s (Glovis’ parent) vehicles on BYD’s controlled PCTC vessel, the 7,000 ceu BYD Explorer.

And, over the mid- to long-term, BYD intends to hire Glovis’s PCTCs to move its new cars, and engage Glovis as a forwarder to ship automobile parts and batteries in containers.

Glovis said in June that it aimed to transport more vehicles from external customers, targeting this proportion to reach 50% over the next five years.

While Hyundai vehicles will be prioritised, Glovis wants to sign on more third-party customers to increase revenue and plans to increase its PCTC fleet from 90 vessels to 128 by 2030.

Last year, Glovis processed export shipments of more than 650,000 teu of automobile parts, batteries, steel, equipment and materials.

In 2022, BYD stopped manufacturing internal combustion-powered vehicles to focus on EVs, for which demand is growing. Last year, it overtook Tesla as the world’s largest EV producer, with an output exceeding three million vehicles.

Currently, Explorer is the only PCTC operated by BYD, which chartered the 2024-built vessel from Zodiac Maritime for five years. To manage the shortage of PCTCs in the market, BYD is building four 9,200 ceu ships at China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) and two of 7,000 ceu at Guangzhou Shipyard International, for delivery in 2025.

BYD also carries its cars through Guangzhou Yuanhai Automobile Shipping, a PCTC-operating JV of Cosco Shipping Specialised Carriers, Shanghai International Port Group and SAIC Anji Logistics.

BYD also employs Cosco to move its EVs in containers.