Will the supply problem be solved?

The data of the Russian Union of Motor Insurers that at the end of 2022 the number of insured accidents under OSAGO, settled with the help of repairs, approached zero, made a lot of noise. The media reported that insurers prefer to replace car repairs under OSAGO with the payment of monetary compensation due to the shortage and rise in price of auto parts. Moskovskaya Pravda found out from experts which spare parts are currently the most scarce and what are the prospects for the auto parts market in the coming year.

Dmitry Korotkov, Sales Director of AUTO-EURO, recalled that despite the fact that in most cases monetary compensation is more profitable for insurers than repairs, under OSAGO they are obliged to send the car for repairs.

Yes, in some cases cash payments are allowed. But, as the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has repeatedly stated, this is possible only in cases provided for by law and by agreement with the car owner, the expert said. – Of course, for insurers, the option “money instead of repairs” is much cheaper. Especially considering that the prices for policies have been constantly growing lately, but payments have not. Moreover, the material compensation takes into account the wear and tear of the machine. Car enthusiasts, for example, already note that with a cash payment in the face of a shortage and an increase in the cost of spare parts, these amounts are not enough to carry out a full-fledged repair. Now, according to the most conservative estimates, the total payments of insurers under OSAGO have decreased by an average of 15%.

Speaking about the prospects for the auto parts market, Dmitry Korotkov notes that most services faced supply problems last year, but this issue was partially resolved.

– Over the year, many foreign automakers left the Russian market (suspended their work), the supply of spare parts for their cars was also disrupted, the delivery time for original components has increased significantly. The majority of car services faced logistical problems – mainly it concerned the supply of motor oils, filters and brake systems. Now the biggest difficulties they will experience mainly with the maintenance and repair of premium cars under the age of three. The key deficit is optics, body elements and glass. In the mass segment, there are much fewer problems with this, since there are more analogues for budget cars. In addition, new manufacturers from China, Iran and India are expected to enter our market. This can also help in the selection of cheaper analogues.

Sergey Demidov, vice-president for auto insurance at Renaissance Insurance, also noted that the biggest problems now arise with the repair of premium car brands – BMW, Land Rover, Mercedes, Jaguar, Volvo, GM, Lexus and Porsche.

– The most significant shortage is spare parts for automakers that have stopped deliveries. The only source of supply is parallel imports. In particular, this affected auto glass, especially since 20-25% of glass is not produced in Russia or there are no analogues. The shortage led to an increase in the cost of spare parts for passenger cars by an average of a third, he said.

The press service of the AvtoSpetsCentre Group of Companies confirmed that car services were faced with a shortage of spare parts for body repairs of European brands.

— For example, there is a lack of spare parts for body repair – windshields and bumpers, oil and fuel filters. The total delivery time for these spare parts is now 30-45 days, the press service of the company specified.

Meanwhile, Roman Timashov, the service director of the AVTODOM Altufievo center, believes that the situation with the availability of spare parts has become better than in June-July 2022, although worse than last year.

“Consumables for car maintenance are available for almost all models,” said Roman Timashov. — Available there are windshields, headlights, bumpers. The situation is simpler with models whose production is localized in Russia. Difficulties are observed with complex assemblies: complete engines, cylinder heads, transmission units. Delivery times may exceed three months. The situation with body parts remains difficult. So, there are problems with the delivery of sidewalls, panoramic roofs: if the packaging dimensions are more than three meters, air transportation of such spare parts is impossible. Parts have to be transported by alternative routes, which leads to an additional rise in cost and an increase in delivery times. There are several options for the delivery of spare parts. Relatively quickly: from a week to a month. Long-term delivery takes from a month to six months. In the second option, the price of the part will be lower.

According to experts, the problem with auto parts is unlikely to be solved by import substitution alone.

“The production capacities of domestic enterprises for the production of auto parts are limited and will definitely not be able to meet the needs of the domestic market,” Dmitry Korotkov believes. – The problem will have to be solved, including through parallel imports. The National Automobile Union proposed to fully open the auto parts market for parallel imports last winter. Most of the auto parts today come, for example, from the UAE. There is also hope that other supply chains will stabilize over time, and worthy analogues will appear. But it is already clear that the prices will be different. Since the beginning of last year, they have grown so much, because their cost is tied to the exchange rate and, moreover, logistics costs have increased. Later, however, the market was “satiated” with details, besides, there was a decrease in consumer demand. So the rise in prices stopped.

As a result, prices for auto parts in 2022 increased by an average of 30%, although some parts have almost doubled in price.

Nevertheless, experts believe that the situation is now gradually improving, as new alternative supply channels appear. And there is a possibility that the problems with the shortage of the most popular spare parts this year will be resolved. True, in 2023, due to inflation, exchange rates and logistics costs, their cost may increase by another 10-30%. Domestic auto parts will also rise in price, in the manufacture of which imported raw materials are used, although less than foreign ones.

Alena Bodrienko.

Photo by Anton Kandrashov / Moskva Agency