NYK has established a new subsidiary to strengthen its finished vehicle logistics business in China where new car sales exceeded 18m units last year. NYK Automotive Logistics China (NALC) will maximize the use of NYK’s existing service network for vehicle distribution throughout the country and will centralise customer service desks.
Since it began finished vehicle operations in China in 2003 NYK Group has developed its services to include vehicle transport throughout the country, car carrier terminal operations at the four major ports of Dalian, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, as well as value-added services including pre-delivery inspection at its vehicle distribution centres.
Last year the company operated about 700 car trailers to provide land transport throughout the country and delivered around 850,000 vehicles from ports and plants to dealer outlets.
The NYK Group began transporting vehicles in 2005 and grew the business as a part of NYK Logistics (China) (NLC), a wholly owned subsidiary. NYK Automotive Logistics China (NALC) has now taken over the land transport of finished cars from NLC but other services, such as the automobile parts logistics business in China, will continue to be provided by NLC. Both companies will cooperate to improve the NYK Group’s automotive-related logistics services in China, said the company.
Yusen Logistics and Honda
In other news, Yusen Logistics (formerly NYK Logistics) has become sole provider of inbound parts collection for Honda UK Manufacturing. The contract, in which Yusen will support Swindon-based production of the Honda Civic, CRV and Jazz, almost doubles Yusen’s business with HUM.
Collecting from 59 of HUM’s UK suppliers, the service operates over 500 routes per week, each of which includes the collection of component parts and the return of packaging. In line with HUM’s production schedule, the frequency of routes varies between single weekly collections, up to 25 timeslots per day depending on the supplier.
“We awarded the business to Yusen Logistics because of their proactive approach to continuous improvement and cost reduction through kaizen programmes, their best-in-class IT systems and their proven operational performance over the past five years.” said Richard Marlow, department manager, External Logistics, HUM. “Their flexibility of approach during periods of disrupted production due to the recession and other exceptional circumstances has also been critical in supporting our business. Yusen Logistics’ outstanding contribution to our business was officially recognised at our recent Supplier Convention, where they were presented with a Supplier Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Honda account.”
Yusen Logistics said it, together with Honda in the UK, was adopting some significant new initiatives within the business, including ongoing programmes to further reduce fuel consumption, improve planning efficiencies, reduce turnaround time at suppliers and critically to help reduce the environmental impact of HUM’s supply chain.
