Import figures – who knows!

The latest report contains import statistics on vehicles that have entered New Zealand. These numbers will also include some of the vehicles that have been cleared by NZ Customs but unable to be offloaded due to Brown Marmorated Stink Bug and Yellow Spotted Stink Bug incursions on board three pure car carriers, which have been deemed to have ‘arrived’ in New Zealand because they docked, but the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) subsequently turned them around. So the vehicles accounted for in the Customs stats will not all be available to be complied and offered for sale. Autofile understands there may well be more than 10,000 cars, a mix of new and used, counted by Customs but yet to be unloaded.   In terms of official arrivals, 9525 used cars, 8043 new cars, 422 used light commercials and 2534 new light commercial vehicles crossed the border. These figures are all down on last year’s import numbers for the same month and year to date.