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Reading time: 5 minutes. When a OEM needed to move auto-parts between continents in a very short time, with very limited budget, our EP Air Export Automotive team came out with an excellent solution negotiated directly with an airline.
The global contingency to contain the spread of COVID-19 severely impacted the automotive industry in the first half of 2020. With the reopening of the economy and the factories progressive return to production, the sector started facing a dilemma: they need time-sensitive logistics services, but with a quite limited budget.
Is it possible?
When you have a quality freight forwarder as an strategic ally, such as Europartners Group, you can rely on the hard work of teams with experience and market knowledge, prepared to design solutions tailor-made to all your needs, based on negotiations with the best suppliers.
The logistics alliance between Europartners Group and the German OEM started a few years ago. In 2019, we transported more than 100 finished cars and were by their side in several time-sensitive situations.
Great negotiations to offer excellent conditions
In today’s story, our EP Air-Export Automotive team attended the request of a large assembler (OEM): moving 3 tons of auto parts from Aguascalientes (Mexico) to Rastatt (Germany).
In both countries, as Europartners Group, we offer superior conditions for any export. In Mexico, we have a special allotment with the leading airline on the route to Germany, which guarantees us space every Monday with a preferential rate on a direct flight departing from the Mexico City International Airport (MEX) to Frankfurt (FRA).
We always do our best to meet your projects’ most specific needs, offering alternative routes, rates and even modalities, also giving you the peace of mind of solving everything with a single contact throughout the operation.
In this project, the 3 tons of auto parts should leave the plant in Aguascalientes in the last week of August and arrive in Germany ASAP.
Joining efforts to serve the OEM and to be able to provide the best solution to their timeframe and budget requirements, our Mexican air sourcing team undertook the task of analyzing the best airline options, considering that we should find a way to:
- secure space
- reduce risks
- meet the delivery date
- respect the budget
With that in mind, we came up with three options, two with priority rates to meet the timeframe. One of them stood out: our allotment to Germany. With this solution in hand, it was time to plan the perfect logistics to get to that flight and thus meeting all the customer requirements.
Now it was the turn of the EP Air-Export Automotive operations team to act. Three OEM plants in different cities needed this logistics plan to be successful, to avoid disruptions in their production lines.
After a very detailed planning and defining the route, our specialized operations teams were in charge of carefully executing all the logistics, from ground transportation from the OEM plant in Aguascalientes to the MEX airport, including all the export documents, successfully achieving to deliver the cargo on time to depart in the allotment, as planned. Everything was performed with constant communication with the import team of Linkin Partner, our brand in Germany, to anticipate any situation at destination.
In Germany, our colleagues kept in close contact with the OEM’s Rastatt office, worked with customs to get import formalities in advance, and organized the ground freight from FRA to the plant.
Success! The second cargo left Aguascalientes on Friday, September 4, arriving at MEX customs on Saturday. The plane took off on Monday, arriving in Germany on Tuesday and getting to the Rastatt plant on Wednesday, September 9, two days before the deadline.
This operation success consisted in seeking a monetarily accessible alternative –in comparison to a critical cargo shipment– since, despite the urgency, with the knowledge and expertise of the operations teams, both in Mexico and Germany , we managed to offer an option that was perfectly adapted to the client’s budget.
At Europartners Group, we want to be more than a supplier: we work hard to be your strategic ally in logistics, a trusted partner dedicated to preventing line disruptions and other problems in your supply chain.
With more than 70 offices in 19 countries, we have the expertise and the flexibility necessary to design plans tailor-made to your needs. We present alternatives to adapt to your projects, and not the other way around.
Interesting facts
In an interview to the online magazine T21, Oscar Albin, Mexico’s National Auto Parts Industry (INA) executive president, highlighted the relevance of the automotive industry for the country’s economic recovery.
In 2019, according to data from the Deloitte consultancy, “the automotive industry contributed with 3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 16% of the Manufacturing GDP, it was the 7th automotive producer in the sector of light vehicles, the third largest exporter of vehicles, 4th largest exporter of auto parts and in terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) it contributed 20 percent”, published the T21.
According to Albin, “the recovery of the automotive industry in the last quarter of the year will be noticeable and this will impact positively the auto parts sector.”
