The German automotive industry is putting in place emergency measures to avoid any disruption to production from planned rail strikes.
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The German rail drivers’ union decided to strike for 62 hours from Wednesday at midday until 2am Saturday morning. This week’s action follows a 42-hour strike last week between 8 and 10 November. Manufacturers avoided disruption last week but is not clear whether similar measures will be enough to avoid a breakdown in logistics for a strike as long as 62 hours.
An Audi spokesman told Automobilwoche that this latest strike places much greater demands on the company’s logistics network, compared to the strike last week. Audi will switch all car transport from rail to road. Normally 1,000 new cars are transported by train everyday. By switching to road Audi will need an additional 125 trucks a day. A further 120 train wagons deliver components each day. An additional 240 trucks will be needed to replace these.
The problem is compounded at Volkswagen which fills 2,000 train wagons daily with new cars and components. Only part of this can be switched to road. Audi and BMW, together with their logistics partners, have organised storage space for completed vehicles. During the first strike the space was reportedly not needed.
According to Automobilwoche, Ford is not hit as hard by the rail strike as some others. It already ships the majority of its cars produced in Cologne. Around 2,000 cars are shipped daily on the Rhine. During last week’s strike, components were switched from rail to road. At Opel around 50% of new cars are shipped by rail. Component supply is mainly by road.
Despite its relatively small size, Porsche has some significant problems arising from the rail strike. Cayenne bodies are transported by rail from the VW plant in Bratislava to the Porsche assembly plant in Leipzig. They cannot be switched to road because of the type of loading and unloading equipment that is used.
“If the train does not come, production at Leipzig comes to a standstill,” a spokesman told Automobilwoche. However, Porsche has reportedly negotiated a private train operator to move the bodies in an emergency. In addition Porsche relies on the railways to transport Boxster bodies to Finland for final assembly by Valmet.
Finally, Daimler cannot rule out disruption to its production programme. It managed to avoid any negative consequences from the strike last week by transferring component supply from rail to road. There were also no significant delays to vehicle deliveries.
