Heilongjiang Lighthouse International Logistics Co., Ltd.

In 2024, Shanghai’s two main automobile export ports achieved a record-breaking export volume of over 1.66 million vehicles, a 26.6% increase compared to the previous year, according to local customs authorities on Wednesday.

The Haitong International Automotive Terminal, China’s largest port for RO-RO ships, serves as a key hub for Chinese car manufacturers exporting their vehicles. According to Shanghai Customs, the terminal has consistently exported around 1 million China-made cars annually over the past three years.

The Nangan Port also plays a significant role as a hub for car imports and exports in Shanghai, complementing the city’s robust automotive export infrastructure.

These two ports symbolize the rapid growth of China’s car exports in 2024. Data from China’s General Administration of Customs shows that last year, the country’s car exports increased by 23% year-on-year, reaching a record high of 6.41 million units.

For the first time, China's coast guard has begun patrolling a section of the country's "nine-dash line" - the loosely-defined boundary of Beijing's unilateral claim to the South China Sea, including international waters and other states' exclusive economic zones.

Since the beginning of the new year, a group of large China Coast Guard cutters have been rotating through patrol duty in an area just off Zambales, Luzon. At closest approach, the patrols have come within about 55 nautical miles of Philippine shores.

One of the deployed vessels is CCG 5901, the largest armed law enforcement vessel in the world at 12,000 tonnes displacement. Over VHF, its crew has informed the Philippine Coast Guard that the CCG is enforcing Chinese law in Chinese waters, even when 100 nautical miles inside the Philippine exclusive economic zone.

The Philippine Coast Guard has dispatched the offshore patrol vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua to monitor the Chinese presence and push back on these sovereignty claims. Despite rough weather conditions, the crew of the Magbanua have kept watch and demonstrated continued Philippine presence.

While monitoring the Chinese flotilla, the Philippine Coast Guard noticed a pattern that may explain the China Coast Guard's new behavior. The CCG cutters have been patrolling a north-south racetrack off Luzon's coast, and the tracklines align well with a segment of the "nine-dash line," which was invalidated by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in 2016.

"Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo. This strategy of normalization, followed by altering the status quo and ultimately operationalizing their illegal narrative, has consistently been part of the Chinese playbook," said PCG spokesman Jay Tarriela. "This is why it is important for the Philippine Coast Guard to actively expose these unlawful deployments of Chinese vessels to the global community, ensuring that such actions are not normalized and that this bullying behavior does not succeed."

Tarriela warned that if China does not get pushed back, it could begin conducting the same patrols in other nations' exclusive economic zones, since the "nine-dash line" affects all of the coastal states of the South China Sea. This includes waters administered by Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia.

To the north, South Korea's government is eyeing new Chinese activity in a contested part of the Yellow Sea. The so-called Provisional Measures Zone is claimed by both sides, and all activities within it are banned except for navigating and fishing. Construction is specifically disallowed - but China has been installing large metal structures in the zone, which it describes as "fishing support facilities." Another structure recently went in the water, South Korean officials reported January 9.

East Asian defense analysts have noted that China pursued a similar incremental strategy with its island-building campaign in the South China Sea - creating nominally civilian structures, militarizing them over time, and then using them to support political claims of sovereignty.

“China is not only installing structures but also conducting military exercises in the region, signaling its ambitions to establish effective control over the West Sea,” Lee Dong-gyu, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told Chosun Daily. “These actions aim to gain leverage in future negotiations with South Korea.”

Fifteen crew on the FESCO-owned container vessel Amnah were forced to jump ship as the loading of the vessel failed leading the ship to capsize.

Ten crew were rescued by emergency services and five others swam ashore unaided as the vessel listed sharply before coming to rest on its port side dumping freight containers into the water. One crew member sustained minor injuries and was transported to hospital.

The incident occurred at around 4 am local time on 23 December as the Comoros-flagged vessel, was being loaded at Istanbul’s Ambarli-Marport terminal. Local sources said the 1996-built, 508 TEU ship began to list as a result of “improper load distribution”.

Although the vessel was being operated by the Russian carrier FESCO, VesselsValue shows no P&I insurance is listed for the vessel.

A Turkish Ministry of Transport statement posted on X, formerly Twitter confirmed: “Fifteen personnel were evacuated from the Comoros-flagged container ship named AMNAH, which was lying sideways at Ambarlı Marport Port. The risk of marine pollution was brought under control by surrounding the ship with a floating barrier. Rescue operations began under the coordination of our port authority.”

The moment that the vessel capsized was captured on the port’s security cameras, which showed containers toppling into the water as dockers ran to escape the falling freight.

Turkish authorities have not said how the loading process failed, and they have not released details of what cargoes the vessel was loaded with and are now sitting in the shallow water at the berth, though protective barriers have been deployed to prevent the spread of pollution.

Ambarli Port is Turkey’s largest port in terms of container volume and the fifth largest by cargo tonnage. It is one of the few ports in the country capable of accommodating vessels exceeding 300m in length, and the privately owned port has been operational since 1994.