Total ship show: Quarantine crisis deepens, 60,000 new cars stuck at sea and ports

New-car delivery delays are expected to get worse before they get better, as more than 60,000 vehicles are stranded offshore or in a backlog awaiting quarantine clearance at ports around Australia.

EXCLUSIVE

8 February 2023: More than 60,000 new motor vehicles – equivalent to almost one month worth of deliveries – are caught-up in a quarantine traffic jam on a scale never seen before in Australia.

The unprecedented bottleneck has forced thousands of customers stuck in the queue to wait even longer for their new car.

At least two-dozen car-carrying ships are anchored offshore or are in transit between ports – creating a pile-up at docks around the country – as expert cleaning teams struggle to treat vehicles for serious biosecurity hazards such as seeds and pests that threaten Australian agriculture.

Stevedores who specialise in car transport told Drive it normally takes 24 hours – working around the clock – to unload a vessel carrying 3000 new cars, disembarking approximately 125 new cars per hour.

However, quarantine cleaning teams can only process vehicles at a rate of nine cars per hour – during normal business hours – as the vehicles need to be thoroughly checked and cleaned. 

At this rate, each quarantine cleaning team can only process about 350 new cars per week; Australians buy new motor vehicles at a rate of 21,000 cars per week.

According to ship-tracking information researched by Drive, there are at least 24 car-carrying ships in limbo or in transit waiting to offload at ports around the country.

The worst affected port is Melbourne, where 12 car-carrying ships were waiting to offload as this article was written, with at least a further four car-carrying ships off the coast of Sydney and another four off the coast of Brisbane.

Based on conservative estimates of 3000 motor vehicles per ship – carrying capacity of each vessel ranges from 3000 to 6000 cars – the east coast of Australia has at least 60,000 new cars waiting to be offloaded.

It means new-car buyers in Australia who have already been waiting six to 18 months for vehicles face further delays of six to eight weeks until the backlog is cleared.

Record shipments of new motor vehicles – arriving in bigger batches than ever before – have overwhelmed most Australian ports over the past three months, which is peak season for pest detections.

Some car-carrying vessels have been held offshore for up to two weeks until the docks clear. 

Drive has seen bulletins sent from car companies to dealers and logistics operators outlining delays at ports around the country.

The exact number of vehicles affected is difficult to pinpoint, however shipping trackers show at least two-dozen car-carrying vessels are being held offshore or are between ports waiting to offload.

Offloading has been delayed by up to 14 days due to a backlog of vehicles being processed by independent contractors responsible for quarantine cleaning.

Affected vehicles cannot leave the immediate port facility area until they have been throughly cleaned, checked and then cleared.

Most new-car brands are affected by delays at the ports – regardless of whether they have quarantine concerns to address.

Caught in the bottleneck are most cars manufactured in the Asia-Pacific (where Australia sources the majority of its motor vehicles) including Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Suzuki – and Chinese companies such as MG, LDV and Great Wall Motors Haval.

Japanese car giant Toyota – which represents one in five new cars sold in Australia – is believed to be among the worst affected by delays at ports, due to contaminations among other brands of cars on shared vessels.

A statement from Toyota said: “Toyota co-operates fully in what is a standard biosecurity process. In recent weeks, there has been an increase in processing times for vehicles at Australian ports.

“Toyota has vigilant inspection and cleaning procedures in place for all ports where vehicles are exported to Australia. We continue to work … to deliver vehicles to customers as quickly as possible.”

European brands have also been roped into the drama on the docks, because vehicles from other car companies on the same vessels have had biosecurity detections. 

In one instance, in the second half of last year, Chinese manufacturer MG reloaded 1000 cars onto a ship at Port Kembla (south of Sydney) and sent them back to China to be cleaned after a snail infestation. The affected vehicles were returned to Australia late last year after being treated in China.

Once pests have been detected on cars recently offloaded from a vessel, a significant portion of vehicles stored around them – and in some cases the entire shipment – is held while it is cleaned and checked, a process that can take weeks.

In the interim, further shipments of cars cannot be offloaded from other vessels because there is no room on the docks until the affected batch of vehicles is cleared.

“The department does not hold an entire shipment based on the inspection results of a single vehicle,” said the Department of Agriculture in a statement to Drive.

“However, depending on the type of biosecurity risk identified, a larger number of vehicles may be held particularly if (stink bugs) and other ‘hitchhiker’ pests that can fly or move about during a voyage … present a broader concern and potentially affect a greater number of vehicles.”

Some car companies – such as Tesla and Ford – have in recent months chartered their own vessels to ensure their cars are not quarantined due to pest detections on rival vehicles on the same vessel.

However, even Ford has been caught up in the latest delays – with a shipment of 2700 cars on the Hercules Leader being processed as this article was written, with more delays on the way. Ford has written to customers to apologise for the extended waiting times.

Ford says its biggest shipping bottlenecks are in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle (near Perth).

It is not viable for car companies to offload vehicles at one port and send them interstate by road because there are not enough trucks to handle ship volumes. 

When asked what counter-measures Ford is undertaking to deal with future possible seed and pest contaminations, a statement from the company said: “Ford Australia is working alongside our international partners to implement strong inspection protocols and controls at the port of departure for ships containing vehicles destined for Australia.

“We are committed to increasing awareness of Australia’s biosecurity import requirements and are endeavouring to reduce the time between decontamination and vessel loading – and introducing additional audits to ensure compliance.

“Ford Australia is working to minimise the impact of these delays on customers. We are keeping our dealer network informed as each vessel is cleared, so that they can keep impacted customers updated. We know customers are keen to get behind the wheel of their new Ford, and we appreciate their patience.”

Drive has been told by industry experts the increase in biosecurity threats is likely because new vehicles are spending longer in holding areas between the car factory and the shipping port where they are due to depart.

Because there are now more new cars waiting to be loaded onto fewer ships, thousands of vehicles awaiting departure are parked in grass fields for weeks at a time, before being loaded onto ships bound for Australia.

Even when parked in holding areas with hard surfaces such as bitumen or concrete, new cars are being stored for so long they are susceptible to seeds or pests being carried by strong winds and onto the vehicles, say experts.

“This level of disruption is unprecedented. The quarantine backlog is the worst it’s ever been, we’ve never seen anything like it. Frankly, it is getting worse by the day,” a senior industry executive who asked to remain anonymous told Drive.

An executive for another car company told Drive: “No car company has a contingency for the current level of interruption and the current costs involved to clean and process these cars.

“The economy is struggling to find enough workers to offload cars in the first place. And service providers who specialise in quarantine cleaning for cars are also overwhelmed. They can’t get enough staff, and the people they do have are overworked and exhausted.”

Delays due to biosecurity detections are not new, but the volume of contaminated cars has increased to a level not seen before, say industry insiders.

Australia has strict biosecurity measures to protect the local agriculture industry and stop pests causing harm to our native plants and animals.

Biosecurity threats historically peak with shipments of cars and containers arriving in the warmer months of the year – from November to February – which creates a bottleneck at ports around the country and adds to vehicle delivery delays.

The Department of Agriculture said “seasonal hitch-hiker pests” include brown marmorated stink bugs (pictured above).

Other biosecurity risks include “snails, seeds, soil and dried plant material that are known to contaminate new vehicles”.

Stink bugs are of particular concern, say authorities, “due to the nature of the pest and its ability to move around during a voyage.”

“The peak for seasonal pests such as (stink bugs) is between November and February however it is dependent on the Northern Hemisphere climate and can begin earlier or last until later in the season,” the Department of Agriculture told Drive.

“The department is currently seeing a significant increase in Biosecurity Risk Material (BRM) on new vehicles arriving in Australia.

“This includes soil, plant debris, seeds, snails and live insects which are not present in Australia.

“Such exotic pests and diseases if established in Australia are capable of damaging our natural environment, destroying our food production and agriculture industries, impacting our economy, and some could change our way of life.”

Given the backlog of cars has reached crisis levels, a number of industry analysts have questioned why there are not better preventative measures, such as cleaning cars before they are loaded onto a ship, cleaning them while on the ship, or having an automated cleaning process on arrival, whether or not pests have been detected.

“Vehicle manufacturers should put in place processes offshore to ensure biosecurity risk material does not contaminate vehicles in the first instance,” said a statement from the Department of Agriculture to Drive.

“If there is a chance biosecurity risk material contamination has occurred, then vehicles should be cleaned prior to loading for shipment to Australia.”

The department said vessel operators should consider “how they manage shipments from multiple ports of loading, and their ability to control cross-contamination.”

“In some instances it may be advantageous for vessel (operators) to conduct pre-loading inspections so they are not loading biosecurity risks onto their vessels that may result in delays on arrival in Australia. The department provides guidance to all importers to help them meet import conditions,” it said.

One major shipping provider has advised car dealers the quarantine crisis in Australia will have a knock-on effect for new-car shipments to other countries in the region – because empty ships are returning several weeks late to collect the next load of vehicles.

A confidential bulletin from a large shipping company sent to car dealers in Australia said: “In January 2023, 117 days were lost to terminal congestion in Oceania, more than double the amount experienced in December 2022, which was already at record levels.

“It is important to note that unfortunately these factors and the current situation are out of our control, as this is an industry-wide problem.

“Every (car-carrying) vessel entering Australian ports is facing the same issue. All Australian terminals (that are designed to receive motor vehicles) are facing unprecedented congestion challenges, that are a result of more findings of seed contamination.

“This biosecurity issue is not related to stink bugs, for which there is a robust management process at load ports.

“Instead the latest issue relates primarily to seed contamination discovered after vehicles are discharged from the vessel.

“Authorities are dedicating more resources into mitigating biosecurity risks. More inspectors have been hired, and as a result we expect to continue to see more findings and therefore, worsening delays.

“The terminals (designed to receive motor vehicles) in Australia have traditionally had capacity to treat import cargoes with bio-security related issues with efficiency, and continue to offer biosecurity-related services.

“However, the current percentage of import cargoes requiring those services has surpassed both the capacity to treat and to provide storage without negatively impacting regular terminal operations.”

One industry insider said additional biosecurity inspectors might increase the number of pest detections on new motor vehicle arrivals.

However, the executive said, an increase in the number of biosecurity inspectors could also clear the backlog of affected cars more quickly – once the vehicles have been cleaned by independent contractors.

The post Total ship show: Quarantine crisis deepens, 60,000 new cars stuck at sea and ports appeared first on Drive.