Congestion at Turkish ports has resulted in significant delays in delivering new vehicles against a backdrop of skyrocketing demand in the burgeoning automotive market. Türkiye recently experienced an auto sales boom with a record 110,000 vehicles sold in June which is a 37.5% year-on-year increase, according to data from Automotive Distributors and Mobility Association (ODMD).

With traditional importation and shipping solutions via ro-ro ships facing significant delays due to congestion at ro-ro ports, car manufacturers were unable to make timely delivery on purchases. This left customers waiting significantly longer for their new cars and caused prices to inflate across both the new and used vehicle markets.

Using an alternative solution to help make more cars flow into the country more quickly, DP World began importing 10,000 vehicles by putting new SUVs from Chinese automaker Chery Automotive into containers. This meant the vehicle could be offloaded using traditional cranes at lift on lift off ports and did not require a specialised ro-ro port or berth, resulting in a significantly more efficient and resilient route to market.

The solution became more feasible when DP World and Chery implemented a specially designed racking arrangement to increase capacity by loading three SUVs into each container instead of two, which helped to improve the cost efficiency of transporting vehicles from China to Türkiye and reduce the cost passed on to consumers. The feasibility of the solution also made Yarimca an important steppingstone for the shipment of Chery Automotive vehicles into the booming Turkish auto market.

With Chery keen to expand its presence in Europe, the cars in container solution is set to be a key part of how it will deliver vehicles to market.

© Shippax