Cost of global automotive logistics in state of flux

摘要

Car carrier representatives at last week's Automotive Logistics Europe conference in Bonn, Germany, warned the industry of a "paradigm shift". The potential losers in the realignment are the European car manufacturers whose freight bill had been heavily subsidised by Japanese and Korean exporters. Higher utilisation rates of car carriers on westbound voyages from the Far East in past decades drove freight rates for Asian exporters to a multiple of those paid by their European competitors.