The delivery time of some imported cars increases from weeks to months, the industry

Delivery times for new and used cars have slipped by weeks or months in New Zealand as ships pile up in Australian ports.

A biosecurity scare has jammed Tasmania’s ports since December, exacerbating supply chain problems.

The industry says thousands of vehicles destined for New Zealand were delayed in Japan.

The managing director of major importer Autohub, Frank Willett, said the usual five to seven week turnaround from a dealer placing an order here to receiving delivery from Japan had become four to five months in some cases

“It will be fair for you to budget three months at this stage and expect faster delivery,” Willett said.

It was the worst contraction I had seen in 17 years in the trade.

“I have customers who have waited over a month and still haven’t received a shipping notice” to confirm when a vehicle will be shipped, said Nick Owens, who runs Auto Inspection Services, a major certification vehicle entrance to the South Island. .

A Christchurch used car dealer said some cars ordered in December only arrived two weeks ago.

Willett said some customers were sick of waiting and dealers’ cash flow was suffering.

A Wellington used car dealer told RNZ: “We have a lot of offers falling through, people are changing their minds because the cars are taking so long to get here.”

Other buyers face losing a Clean Car Discount or paying a higher rate (many discounts and rates change on July 1), and even cars ordered weeks ago may not make ho and register before this change.

An internal industry calculation for net car rebate changes is that for a random selection of about 6,000 imported vehicles, rebates would drop by 44% and rates would increase by 160%.

“Feast or Famine” as shipping delays cause bottlenecks

Shipping delays also increase vehicle storage costs.

Mr Willett said some ships were sailing directly to New Zealand or had been diverted to do so, but deliveries were irregular and sometimes coincided with a ship eventually arriving here from Australia, causing flooding.

Owens said it was “famine or feast.”

His business averaged 300 vehicles a month, but could handle up to 100 a week.

The bottlenecks, plus transshipment – where some ships unloaded Christchurch-bound vehicles in Auckland and sent them onto a subsequent ship – meant they could see up to 200 cars arrive at once “with very little notice”.

“This can lead to expensive bills for us to arrange for short-term vehicle storage, and then delays throughout the process of getting the vehicle ready to be ‘yard ready’ for the dealer,” Owens said.

Figures from Stats NZ show imports of new passenger vehicles were down 10%, or 3000 vehicles, in the first three months of this year compared to the past two years.

Imports of used passenger vehicles in the first three months of 2023 are about the same as a year ago, but are down 30% (or 10,000 vehicles) in each of the previous three years.

Signs of liberation

Willett said there were signs of the narrowing of the mess in Australia.

“Things should start picking up.”

However, as of May 3, the Port of Melbourne had 17 ships queuing for slots when there would normally be one or two.

Also, dealers were still ordering more cars than restricted shippers could handle, despite vehicle export agents trying to hold them back until the backlog was cleared, Willett said.

“There are storage costs that need to be paid that someone has to pay.

“So if the export agent has to charge storage costs to the price of the vehicle, that just increases the price of the vehicle.”

It would have helped if the government had heeded industry advice and not rushed to change the clean car rebate in July, Mr Willett said.

The biosecurity hazard was a new type of threat, Australian biosecurity has been cited, stemming from new cars being stored longer than is common in Asia, being exposed to more seeds and organic debris.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the number of new cars needing to be decontaminated had soared by 88 per cent in the past year.

Their figures showed that far more new car imports from China had to be decontaminated than anywhere else.

Australia’s level of biosecurity problems not evident in NZ – MPI

New Zealand’s Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) said it was experiencing nothing of the sort.

“We haven’t seen anything close to what’s been seen in the trench,” said James Reed, director of national biosecurity programs.

Inspectors had not intercepted any live biosecurity issues on vehicle carriers this season, and the few discoveries that had occurred were found by crews on board.

“We maintain a close relationship and conversations with our colleagues in the trench. And so we are monitoring everything.

“But so far, our systems are working very well and our verifications are confirming that,” Reed said.

Here the ports were checked, as were the ships as they came in, as well as random samples of the cars on board.

The vehicles were clean when they were boarded, Reed said.

MPI had approved vehicle cleaning systems in several countries, including Japan, and for used cars. He had staff in Japan two weeks ago to look at new vehicle systems.

China had its own systems and has a low risk for living biosecurity matter due to its natural predators.

“It’s very compliant,” Reed said.

The checks are proportional and random, so as imports from China increased, MPI would check more vehicles.

– RNZ