The car industry recorded 10.4 percent more turnover over the whole of last year than in 2020, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
Due to chip shortages and delivery problems, fewer new cars were sold last year, but the maintenance sector in particular did well, according to Statistics Netherlands. In the trade and maintenance of used passenger cars, turnover rose by about 11 percent in 2021. That is not to say that so many more cars had to be repaired last year than the year before. Marjolijn Jaarsma, economist at Statistics Netherlands, assumes that the increase is mainly due to higher prices.
Sales of new car importers rose by 2.5 percent, which is relatively the smallest growth in the various parts of the car industry. The chip shortage is clearly visible here, especially when you see that turnover was almost 11 percent lower than in 2019.
| Category | development compared to 2020 (%) | development compared to 2019 (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Total car and motorcycle industry | 10.4 | 2.5 |
| Motorcycle trade and repair | 21.0 | 24.3 |
| Heavier commercial vehicle industry | 14.6 | 0.9 |
| Trade in auto parts | 13.0 | -0.3 |
| Specialist repair shops | 10.9 | -1.0 |
| Trade and repair of passenger cars | 10.8 | 7.0 |
| Importers | 2.5 | -10.8 |
For the coming year, car entrepreneurs do not see it very rosy. About 30 percent say they will suffer from material and chip shortages in the first quarter of this year, and expect the problems to continue for a while. In addition, there were a record number of 6,200 vacancies in the automotive sector. That is the largest number since the measurements started in 1997, which points to an unprecedented shortage of personnel.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl