Imported cars are piling up at European ports, and leaders in both the port and auto industries point out the opposite. Financial Times Primarily on Chinese electric car manufacturers.
– They use ports as parking lots, says a logistics manager in the automobile industry.
Some cars have been at ports for up to 18 months, and another car logistics expert explains to the newspaper that the cars remain until they are sold to distributors or end-users.
“It's chaos,” says another person briefed on the situation.
-Everyone struggles with waiting lists
“Dealers are increasingly using the port car park as a warehouse. Instead of storing cars at dealers, they are collected at the car terminal. All major car ports have congestion problems,” the Port of Antwerp-Bruges wrote in a statement without specifying where the cars come from. The company operates the port of Zeebrugge, the busiest port in Europe for car imports.
According to the Financial Times, Secretary-General Cui Dongshu of the China Passenger Car Association explains that domestic charging in Europe is difficult for Chinese electric car manufacturers.
– We must change the guerrilla-like car exports, which will put us at a disadvantage, he says, and stresses that manufacturers must improve “after-sales” services.
Reduced German support
BLG Logistics, which handles the flow of cars at the German port of Bremerhaven – the second busiest car port in Europe, explains that waiting lists have increased since the German government reduced subsidies for the purchase of electric cars last December. The formation of the queue is happening at the same time that several Chinese automakers, such as BYD, Great Wall, Chery and SAIC, are planning an export offensive to Europe.
In 2023, China's auto exports rose by a whopping 58 percent from the previous year, but according to the newspaper, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao dismissed accusations of excess capacity as baseless at a meeting with Chinese automakers in Paris last Sunday.
-Lost trucks
However, Chinese companies that have built teams in Europe from scratch are struggling to find carriers that prioritize their orders, auto industry executives told the Financial Times.
– Truck shortages are a very common problem, many of which are reserved for Tesla. Any new brand will face this problem. If you don't have large-scale or regular deliveries, you're not one of the carriers' biggest customers, people familiar with the situation say.
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