Anyone who orders a new car has to wait a long time for delivery - an extremely long time in some cases. The shortage of chips and the war in Ukraine are continuing to slow down vehicle production. While demand for used cars is rising, to the delight of independent workshops in this country, logistics requirements in the German automotive industry are also increasing. Why is that?
Throughout the world, car manufacturers are really struggling to fulfil the demand for new cars. There is an ongoing shortage of semiconductors needed for the production of new cars. And this shortage will continue until 2024 according to a recent study. There is still a shortage of cable harnesses, for which Ukraine had developed into an important production site. The terrible war in the Ukraine is therefore also slowing down new car production in Germany.
So I was somewhat surprised by the heading of an article in the "Automobilwoche" trade journal (issue 23/2022). It claimed that logistics requirements in the German automotive industry were increasing rapidly, despite decreasing production.
Factory deliveries increased by 200 percent
This is the result of an assessment by "Inform", an IT service provider that provides the logistics software for 101 plants of automotive manufacturers and suppliers in Germany. The colleagues at Inform therefore have a fairly solid database.
The assessment shows that the monthly travel of trucks to plants from 2020 to September 2022 increased by around 200 (!) percent. Ulf König, Head of Strategic Corporate Development at Inform, explains: "Although fewer cars are leaving the factories, there are relatively high levels of activity in terms of delivery at the factory gate".
Supply bottlenecks and falling production volumes make logistics more difficult
"Disruptions such as supply bottlenecks are causing turmoil in the system," says König. The result: Car manufacturers, suppliers and logistics service providers have to react more flexibly, leading to more journeys: While trucks were fully loaded with parts for a single manufacturer before the crises (Corona, Ukraine war, chip shortages), according to "Automobilwoche", this is often no longer possible due to supply bottlenecks and falling production volumes.
So the trucks that would previously only travel to one factory are now loaded with goods for other companies to ensure that the trips are fully utilised. This increases the demands on logistics considerably. So this is a real eye-opener.