Duisburg is an inland waterways port situated on the river Rhine near Essen.
The facility, which is being built by port operator Duisport/Duisburger Hafen with an expenditure of €25m, is expected to be fully operational by early November next year and will be operated by service provider Schnellecke Logistics. It is expected to be the largest Audi CKD export hub in the world and will be the seventh facility in Audi’s CKD network.
“We are establishing the logistics centre in Duisburg harbour primarily because demand for our products is gaining especially quickly outside of Europe,” said a spokesperson for Audi. “At the same time, this means that more CKD components are being shipped to Asia for locally produced Audi models and that correspondingly large logistics centers are needed.”
The facility will comprise of a 42,600-square-metres logistic hall, 1,500 square metres of office space, and 2,000 square metres of roofed open-air storage.
According to a spokesperson for Schnellecke, the logistics provider will handle the planning of packaging, subject to Audi requirements, as well as interim storage of automobile parts (prepackaged or otherwise), picking to individual orders and scheduling of the complete packaging material.
Audi expects to process 800,000 cubic metres of vehicle components a year via the Duisport facility.
Schnellecke will also handle the containers and scheduling as well as the processing of empty containers.
“We will handle 16,000 containers and 4,000 different parts for the production of more than 300,000 cars, including the A4, A6, Q3, Q5 and Q7, which will be built in in China and India,” said spokesperson. “The parts need special knowhow and therefore they will be produced in Europe.”
Audi is experiencing record growth in China. In 2012, the carmaker will supply CKD components for more than 300,000 cars to production facilities there. According toe the carmaker between 50-85% of a vehicle’s added value is generated locally in China.”
This is in addition to finished vehicle imports which saw an above-average growth of 89% last year to a reach around 58,000 vehicles (excluding Hong Kong). And between January and September this year, 43% more customers bought an imported Audi compared to the same period in 2011.
In India, Audi will supply its manufacturing facilities with components for more than 7,000 cars. This corresponds to delivery of roughly 13,000 containers from Germany to China and India. The carmaker has also exceeded its initial 8,000 sales target in India, having sold 8,072 units since January and expecting to sell 8,600 by year end.
“The parts deliveries from Europe are essentially the result of the ability to produce cars locally. Due to the project size for China, Audi is already having a significant share produced locally,” a spokesperson told Automotive Logistics News.
For China the CKD components are transported for assembly at VW’s joint venture facility in Changchun – FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Company – where the Audi A4 L, A6 L and Q5 are made.
An additional build-to-order plant will be added in China in late 2013 in Foshan according to the carmaker where a new A3 model will be assembled.
For India, CKDs of the Audi A4 sedan, A6 sedan, Q5 and Q7 are sent to the Skoda Auto India Private plant in Aurangabad for assembly on behalf of Audi. From mid-2013 on, the Audi Q3 will also be assembled there from CKDs sent from Germany.
