Japanese Auction and Ocean Freight

Japanese Auction and Ocean Freight Update

We would like to share some information about the current Japanese used car market and the Ocean freight with everyone. Japanese Auction- When this COVID-19 thing started, auctions almost closed in 3/2020. They came back up in 4/2020 but far less vehicles were going through. And it seems like that is still the way to date. At the same time, prices of sold vehicles are soaring across the board and the trend continues. We see 30%-100% increase on prices. The one of recent reports shows the average used car price in Japan started to decrease some. But these 25 years or older import eligible vehicle prices look like staying high due to their demands.

Ocean Freight- It is still  hard to book them timely. Stay on the waiting list for 3-4 weeks and get booked on a ship departing 6 -8 weeks from the time of booking. Days on the water are 4.5-5 weeks. It takes 13-17 weeks total to get vehicles here. Ship's schedule changes happen quite often now and affecting the time frame. The rate has also increased again.

Package Shipping - It is pretty much back to the way it was except ther rate. Seems almost doubled compares to pre Covid.

Hope everything will settle back down soon. Till then we will do our best to keep the impact minimum for the "fun ride".