Import of used motor vehicles: What, from where, through which customs and for how much was imported last year?

Analysts of the Auto Market Research Institute have studied customs statistics for 2023, and are ready to share basic information about the import sector of used motor vehicles: passenger cars, trucks, tractors and their semi-trailers, as well as buses.

Import dynamics

From January to the middle of the year, the volume of imported vehicles (mentioned above) gradually increased, with a certain stabilization of the number in the summer. In September-October, there was an increase in the rate of imports again, which in the last two months of 2023 changed to a certain "decline", in fact — to the level of the "statistical plateau" observed in the summer months.

From where were vehicles imported most often?

The majority of used vehicles arrive in Ukraine from the countries of the European Union — according to statistics, this is 64.6%. A quarter of the market is occupied by cars from the USA (24.9%), which, as evidenced by the numbers, do not lose their relevance among Ukrainian buyers, even despite the conclusion of logistics and an increase in the cost of delivery.

If we consider the European direction, without generalizing it to the EU+individual country format, the leader among motor vehicle suppliers with mileage according to the results of last year was Poland, with a share of 27.1%. However, it should be noted here that in some situations this country is not a real point of departure of cars, but only a "transshipment point", so the actual number of vehicles from Poland may be less, but there are no other data, except official ones, so we have to rely on them .

Germany is the largest European car market, in second place, slightly behind Poland, with a share of 23.6%.

The shares of other countries are much more modest: 8.3% in Slovakia, 5.3% in the Netherlands, 4.7% in Lithuania, and further decreasing.

Distribution of imports by types of TK

Among all the main types of used vehicles that have arrived in Ukraine for the purpose of their release into free circulation, the largest share is passenger cars: 83.6%.

Tractor units for semi-trailers took 6%, trailers and semi-trailers to them — 5.1%.

A similar share of trucks — 5%, and buses arrived the least from abroad, only 0.3% of them.

The price picture of imports

The price picture, since they have the largest share in imports, is mostly formed by passenger cars with mileage. The highest concentration of them is at the beginning of the chart (in the direction of reading), with a peak in the range of $1...2 thousand.

Most of the cars in the range of $10-15,000 are made up of cars from the USA, from where electric cars of a well-known local brand mostly come, the average auction check of which is just in this price range. Also, other American passenger cars of a similar value end up here, because due to the increase in the cost of logistics, importers have no commercial interest in delivering budget options to Ukraine.

Another part of this range is formed by trucks and tractors for semi-trailers. Although the share of such vehicles is smaller than that of passenger cars, due to legislative restrictions on environmental standards (Euro-5) and the age limit of 5 years, up to which the excise duty remains at an acceptable level for Ukrainian buyers, without a significant increase, these vehicles are significantly more expensive than passenger cars.

Declarants: individuals and legal entities

Most of the used vehicles included in this review were cleared for legal entities, the share of which is 55.9%.

Individuals, respectively, declared for customs clearance 44.1% of vehicles with a mileage of 2023.

Import volumes by customs

Among the regional customs, the largest number of used vehicles was registered through the Volyn (28.6%) and Lviv (26.6%) customs. Rivne (12.7%) can also be counted among the top three, although in terms of the number of registrations, it is more than twice inferior to the two leaders of this rating. In total, these three customs pass through them 67.9% of all motor vehicles with mileage that enter Ukraine for further release into free circulation.

It is obvious that large volumes of transport customs clearance are facilitated by the close location to the borders and the presence of regional customs clearance points located directly at the checkpoints.

According to the results of last year, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Poltava customs offices had the lowest results.

Conclusions

In general, imported used vehicles of the specified categories, based on the results of actual sales in 2023, occupied 18.5% of the automobile market of Ukraine. At the same time, the majority of trades take place within the country — 74.5% of the total number of sales transactions. Only 7% of new vehicles of the types included in this review were purchased. Such numbers indicate a significant advantage of the secondary market, with a shift in the price range towards budget options. The lack of available financing programs for the purchase of motor vehicles in Ukraine also adds to this, which in practice leads to cash payments, mainly in foreign currency, and the buyer needs to have the full amount. Therefore, taking into account the low purchasing power, the lack of financing programs and the generally unstable economic situation and the war in the country, the purchase of used cars from abroad is currently the main source of replenishment of the car fleet of Ukraine.

The expected " customs clearance in Diya ", announced by representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, if it becomes operational this year, will have a certain impact on the import segment, but only in the part of passenger cars, where the share of cars registered by individuals without the help of customs brokers is likely to increase. However, this new service will not affect the total quantity or the price picture, as well as the import of auction cars from American countries, since it changes the procedure, not the cost of customs clearance.

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