GM makes it a first with US cars to China

General Motors has started exporting Cadillacs and Buicks from the Port of Hueneme in California to China. It is the first major export activity to take place under the company’s contract with Global Auto Processing Services (GAPS), signed this time last year. Up until now GAPS has only dealt with imports through the port.

 

The M/V CSCC Shanghai, chartered by finished vehicle carrier K Line, loaded 2,149 vehicles bound for the Port of Shanghai where it unloaded the Cadillacs before departing for Xingang (further north) with the remaining Buicks.

 

“It is an ongoing deal, with what we hope will be one to two sailings a month,” said GM logistics specialist Don Asdell. The amount is subject to demand in China in the long term.

 

The vehicles are manufactured at plants in Arlington, Texas, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Lansing, Michigan. They are taken by rail to Mira Loma in Riverside County and from there by truck to the Port of Hueneme. Mira Loma’s automotive facility is a 256-acre distribution centre run by Union Pacific. Honda also uses the Mira Loma link to the port and combined finished vehicle exports have created a 110 per cent jump in exports through Hueneme compared with last year.