WEAK AUTO SALES news by Hebei Longsheng
| Grimaldi, weak auto sales bring grim tidings for vehicle shipping Transatlantic shipping is in the middle of a slowdown that is "a lot to do with recession fears, protectionism in the U.S. and Brexit" according to Emanuele Grimaldi, an investor in the Grimaldi shipping group. Vehicle shipping from the EU to the U.S. faces two major challenges. U.S. auto sales of foreign vehicles dropped by 13.7% year over year in September and fell by 1.5% in 3Q. There’s also the prospect of the U.S. applying section 232 "national security" duties to EU auto exports from mid-November which could be "a big challenge", Grimaldi has stated. While Grimaldi’s ACL only represented 2.2% of U.S. seaborne imports of vehicles in the 12 months to Sept. 30, their volumes handled had jumped 69.8% higher compared to a year earlier as it took market share from Wallenius Wilhelmsen. Major users of Grimaldi’s Transatlantic services include the construction equipment makers Liebherr and Sandvik, leaving the firm exposed to the business investment cycle too. |
