SAIC Motor's MG-branded electric vehicles await loading at a port in Shanghai. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

At the start of the New Year, auto exports at Shanghai ports witnessed a vigorous start, with the Shanghai Haitong International Automotive Terminal -- located at Waigaoqiao port area -- alone shipping more than 20,000 vehicles of all kinds in January, up more than 50 percent year-on-year.

Even during this year's Spring Festival holiday, Haitong Terminal had freighters setting sail every day. On Feb 17 -- the 6th day of this year's Lunar New Year -- 2,159 Renault pure electric vehicles were put on a roll-on freighter, destined for the UK, after completing customs inspection.

Ding Haoliang, who is in charge of car import and export inspection at Haitong Terminal, said that since last year his load of car export inspections has increased sharply.

In Ding's opinion, Haitong Terminal was dominated by imports in the past decade, but this pattern has been altered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the Shanghai Waigaoqiao port area imported 313,000 vehicles and exported 305,000 vehicles respectively, with a difference of only 8,000 units between them.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, a large number of overseas factories have shut down, resulting in the relocation of some of the production capacity to China.

Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory has reportedly increasingly become one of the main drivers of auto exports at Shanghai ports.

According to reports from the manufacturer, production of Tesla's Model 3 has risen to more than 5,000 units a week at the Shanghai Gigafactory and production of the Model Y began at the end of last year. In addition to supplying the local Chinese market, these models also export to other parts of the world.

The export figure is also said to be evidence that the quality of Chinese auto products is increasingly being recognized by overseas markets.

For example, to date, SAIC's MAXUS EV30 new energy vehicle has received over 1,000 orders in Norway. In addition, 1,285 new energy vehicles carrying Geely's Polestar brand were exported to Europe in June alone last year.

According to officials at the Haitong Terminal, in the past more than 60 percent of car exports were delivered to regions such as Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. But now the cars exported to Europe, the United States, New Zealand, Australia and other developed countries account for nearly 50 percent.