Shi Yunsheng, who has worked hard for many years in the automobile import and export industry, plunged into the used car market that he had never set foot in before two years ago. However, Shi Yunsheng is in the second-hand car business, and the target customers are not in China, but overseas.
Shi Yunsheng is the general manager of Tianjin Huatu Automobile Logistics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tianjin Huatu"). Although Shi Yunsheng can only be regarded as a "new recruit" in the second-hand car field, he has successfully led the company to make a successful second-hand car export business.
From the completion of the first order in the winter of 2020 to September this year, Tianjin Huatu’s overseas sales of second-hand cars exceeded 1,000 units in just over a year, becoming the number one company in Tianjin’s second-hand car exports, and at the same time nationwide. Also in the top echelon.
In Shi Yunsheng's view, the rapid development of the company's used car export business is fundamentally due to the rise of China's new energy vehicles in the past few years. Like new cars, new energy used cars are also a "sweet pastry" in the market in many overseas countries.
"Our China's new energy vehicles are developing too fast. The new energy vehicles that domestic consumers can enjoy now are very advanced, with fast product iterations, advanced technology and high cruising range, so even our eliminated products can still be used. It has become an advanced product in overseas markets." Shi Yunsheng said.
The hot industry situation makes Shi Yunsheng full of confidence in selling more Chinese used cars overseas. Not long ago, the employees of Tianjin Huatu quietly discovered that such an internal slogan with the logo of the company was hung on the wall of the company - "Committed to letting people all over the world own a Chinese new energy vehicle".
From 6 units to nearly 2000 units
As an automobile import and export logistics service enterprise, Tianjin Huatu has known and gained a lot of overseas automobile dealers by taking advantage of its overseas shipping business as early as 2013.
"These overseas dealers, their new cars and second-hand cars are not separated, so they are also the basis for us to export second-hand cars overseas. We also sold 40,000 new cars overseas in three years, so the overseas dealership of cars We are no strangers." Shi Yunsheng said.
The first year of China's second-hand car exports is 2019. At the end of April 2019, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Public Security and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued the "Notice on Supporting the Development of Used Car Export Business in Mature Areas". In May 2019, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Public Security and the General Administration of Customs jointly held a special meeting to officially start the export of used cars.
In September 2020, Tianjin Huatu obtained the qualification for exporting used cars. In the winter of that year, Tianjin Huatu spent more than two months to purchase 6 BYD new energy used car taxis from the Beijing market and successfully exported them to the European market and sold them to A travel company in Eastern Europe completed the first export of used cars.
"This European company originally wanted to come to China to buy batteries. After we communicated with him, we told him that the price of buying batteries in China can actually buy a car. They were very interested. With the mentality of giving it a try, they put I bought the car." Shi Yunsheng still has a fresh memory of the company's first order.
What makes Shi Yunsheng excited is that after completing this order, the sales opened up at once, "The response was very good after they went back. This kind of second-hand car is used for commercial purposes overseas, and foreigners pass it on by word of mouth, and it is passed on ten or ten times. Hundreds, we received a large number of orders later."
In addition to waiting for the business to be delivered to the door, Shi Yunsheng also led the company to take the initiative to find customers overseas. In September 2021, the relevant departments of the Tianjin Municipal Government took the lead in holding an overseas Chinese used car exhibition in Dubai. Tianjin Huatu, together with 8 other pilot enterprises, participated in the exhibition of 27 used car products. The exhibition period was originally planned to be 3 months, but the exhibition cars were successfully sold in less than 1 month.
"When we said we wanted to hold an exhibition, foreigners thought we were crazy. They used to do luxury brands from Europe, America, Japan and South Korea, such as Toyota, Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. We just wanted to give it a try, and the results were unexpected. Unexpectedly, it was robbed and sold out." Shi Yunsheng said with emotion.
From 2021 to this year, Tianjin Huatu's used car business has experienced explosive growth. In 2021, 252 second-hand cars were exported, but so far this year, there have been 900 units. The completed orders and the orders in hand have approached 2,000 units, and the market covers Dubai, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Poland, Bulgaria, Georgia and other countries.
From the perspective of export volume, Shi Yunsheng originally envisaged that the company's export volume would exceed 100 million yuan in five years, but on September 6 this year, this goal was achieved three years ahead of schedule. He also estimated that the company's second-hand car exports will achieve the second 100 million yuan by the end of the year.
"I didn't expect the second-hand car export business to develop so rapidly. I think there are many factors here, one of which is that our country adheres to the dynamic "clearing and clearing" policy, the epidemic prevention and control are effective, and the supply chain has recovered. The best in the world, with stable domestic production." Shi Yunsheng said.
This year, a new round of Chinese used car overseas trade fairs will be held soon. This time, Tianjin pilot enterprises have also prepared nearly 70 exhibition vehicles, nearly three times the number of the first exhibition. The products are more diversified, including both self-owned brand models and joint venture brand models.
The beneficiaries of the rise of new energy vehicles
Unlike domestic used car dealers who are generally reluctant to contact new energy models, most of Tianjin Huatu's exports are new energy used cars, and this is the direction that Shi Yunsheng actively chooses.
Shi Yunsheng said that the government encourages the consumption of new energy vehicles in the country, and policy guidance has made new energy vehicles gradually accepted by the common people. "There should be many large cities now, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has exceeded 30% in recent months. , such a large-scale market ownership has laid a particularly good foundation for the export of new energy used cars."
According to data from the Ministry of Public Security, as of the end of September this year, the number of new energy vehicles in the country reached 11.49 million, accounting for 3.65% of the total number of vehicles.
"In the past, our fuel vehicles were behind others, but now new energy vehicles are not only overtaking on curves, we are formulating rules to lead the migration of the entire front. Once we are ahead, it is actually relatively easy to export these vehicles." Shi Yunsheng analyzed.
Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that from January to September this year, China exported 389,000 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of more than 100%, accounting for 18.37% of the total vehicle exports in the same period.
Shi Yunsheng is not worried about the source of new energy used cars, "The first generation of new energy vehicles in China have been put into commercial operation, such as taxis and online car-hailing, and these cars have just begun to enter large-scale elimination and retirement in the past two years. Expect".
Compared with new cars, new energy used cars face the problem of lower residual value in China. Shi Yunsheng said, "We actually had a lot of anxiety at the beginning, such as worrying that if the new energy vehicle encounters bad weather abroad, the charging and battery life performance will not be good.
Later, Shi Yunsheng discovered that there is no need to worry about these at all. The domestic new energy vehicle technology is much ahead of foreign countries, such as fast charging. Domestic new energy vehicles can be fully charged in two or three hours, but they are basically slow in foreign countries. Charging is AC, not DC.
"After our new energy vehicles have run more than 300,000 kilometers, the subsequent used cars have been refurbished to a certain extent, and the battery life can reach more than 200 kilometers. This is beyond the expectations of the old man. He feels that China's new energy vehicles are really cost-effective, because With the same cruising range, second-hand new energy vehicles in Europe and America are nearly twice as expensive as ours." Shi Yunsheng said.
At present, a major challenge facing China's auto exports is the high cost of ocean freight. Although container prices have plummeted recently, car ro-ro shipping rates for complete vehicles remain high.
According to data from shipping big data company VesselsValue, the rental of car ro-ro ships was US$55,000/day in May this year.
"The prices we sell overseas are also high, and the competitiveness of our products is sufficient," Shi Yunsheng said. The high cost of automobile shipping will not have a significant adverse impact on the company's new energy and used car exports in the long run.
In addition, Shi Yunsheng believes that with the further development of the new energy vehicle market in the future, second-hand fuel vehicles will also usher in new opportunities for export, and Tianjin Huatu will also be more active in exporting second-hand fuel vehicles.
"In the later period, when the domestic ownership of our new energy vehicles further increases, the high price of fuel vehicles will be completely knocked down, and then our second-hand fuel vehicles will also be competitive in the right-hand drive market, so fuel vehicles are The second step, the new energy vehicle is the first step." Shi Yunsheng said.
Go to more countries to provide more products
In planning the overseas market for used cars, Shi Yunsheng plans to export more products to more countries along the "Belt and Road", especially Russia, Gulf countries and South American countries.
Shi Yunsheng is very optimistic about the Russian market. Russia has a very large demand for imported cars. Previously, European, American, Japanese and Korean brands dominated the Russian auto market, but now the international pattern has changed. Many European, American, Japanese and Korean brands have gradually withdrawn from Russia, but Sino-Russian trade has become more smooth.
It is understood that in the first half of this year, Tianjin Huatu began to focus on opening up logistics to Russia, and completed the trade test between them in just one month.
Shi Yunsheng said that the Middle East in the Gulf is also worthy of attention. Now the global energy crisis has spread to Europe. As the oil-producing countries in the Gulf and the Middle East, oil prices have risen sharply, causing many consumers to change their car habits. In addition, the weather in the Middle East is relatively hot all year round, there is no problem of low temperature attenuation of batteries, solar energy resources are abundant, and household charging facilities are very convenient, so many people start to choose second-hand new energy vehicles from China.
Not only to go to more countries, Huatu also plans to build an ecosystem for the export of second-hand new energy vehicles. It is understood that in addition to selling secondary cars, Huatu also hopes to promote related supporting facilities such as charging stations and remote technical maintenance guidance.
In addition to the strong demand in overseas markets, Shi Yunsheng believes that the rapid development of Tianjin Huatu in the used car export industry has also benefited from the help of government departments and industry associations, and these external help will still be needed in the future.
"At the government level, Tianjin has planned the strategic direction of 'a major automobile circulation center city' and built a 'used car export base in the north'. From the service of the entire automobile-related industry, the government has sufficient supporting facilities, and used car tax rebates are very timely. Association level , and also actively hold various activities such as overseas exhibitions and online lectures.” Shi Yunsheng said that the original tax refund took about 4-5 months, and this year, the tax refund will basically be credited in more than 2 months.
The automobile industry is a capital-intensive industry. For enterprises in the automobile circulation industry, the health of the capital chain is also a matter of development and even life and death. Shi Yunsheng expects that in the future, relevant departments can introduce more policies and measures to allow banks and financial institutions to further increase their support for used car exporters and participate in the entire trade chain.
The export of used cars is in the downstream of the automobile industry chain, and it will also affect each other with the upstream of the industry chain. Shi Yunsheng also expressed the hope that more large and state-owned leasing companies and online car-hailing companies will pay attention to the export of second-hand cars, so that second-hand car export companies like us will have more opportunities to cooperate with them, so as to truly form "internal and external dual circulation". .
As an emerging business, Chinese companies are still in their infancy in terms of supporting and experience in exporting used cars. Therefore, no matter how good the external conditions are, the way of exporting used cars still needs to be explored and tried by enterprises themselves.
"When you do this thing, you must be the most professional in every node, including professional logistics, as small as the transfer of a car, as large as the entire financial settlement system, the use of financial tools, and the details of negotiating with foreigners, We all want to do our best," Shi Yunsheng said.
