Trade in Japan ‘limited’
There is still business going on in Japan with auctions open, but sales activity there can be – at best – described as “limited”.
Mike Tyler, director of Autoterminal, says: “The business is shut, our customers’ businesses are shut and that puts everyone in a difficult position.
“There’s still some activity in Japan and we’ve still got guys at auction who can go out and buy cars. But it’s limited because there’s so much uncertainty here that there’s no appetite to go out and purchase when you don’t know what the future looks like.”
Tyler told Autofile Online that when New Zealand was at previous alert levels, business could operate and there was some degree of activity.
He adds: “Even in the global financial crisis, we were still able to trade and find a way to keep the lights on even though there were some dramatic impacts, but under this lockdown there’s zero activity. Our industry is no different to many and right now there’s so many unknowns.
“The industry has proved itself to be resilient over a long period of time and has got through crises before. You fall back on that resilience. If we end up being locked down for longer, the position will become more difficult. But if we can get business back and open, then there’s the opportunity to get some activity going. A business like ours supports so many companies in the supply chain and if we cannot reopen, the domino effect is widespread.
“At this point, it’s a case of isolating and hoping the current government strategy works. Together, all of us can knock the virus out and the impact as a whole is minimal. The government can’t keep supporting us the way it is forever, so things will have to restart at some point. We just need it to be sooner rather than later.”
