stopped cars that cannot leave their ports

China has taken positions in Europe. The European automobile industry is witnessing a rampant arrival of Chinese manufacturers trying to sell as much as possible at the fastest possible pace. Chinese manufacturers looking for factorieswho reach new countries and try to build the necessary infrastructure to place their cars on our roads.

A rampant landing that has its consequences in European ports.

Overwhelmed. This is what the colleagues of Motorpassion. The large European ports have been filled with Chinese cars that no one can let out. Satellite images show that the large number of these cars is turning what was previously a transit area into authentic fields of Chinese cars.

The large European ports are the ones that are most noticing this landing of Chinese cars. Antwerp-Zeebrugge in Belgium, Bremerhaven in Germany or Barcelona in Spain are those that have to deal with higher volumes of vehicles packaged in China and discovered in Europe.

What does the data say? Exactly this. They rescue in GFM Review that the large ports mentioned above have found themselves with the problem of managing a huge stock of vehicles for which there is no outlet. So much so that there are vehicles, they say, that have not moved for 18 months.

According to data collected by elDiario.esBarcelona is positioning itself as one of the great poles of attraction in Europe. Last year, cars arriving at the Catalan port increased by 5% but imports from China grew by more than 40%. In the month of January alone, the volume of cars received increased by 80% compared to the same month in 2025.

In The Mercantile They report that the excess of vehicles in the port has forced unscheduled trains to be mobilized to distribute cars to Madrid, especially Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo, which have their large operations center in Barcelona. But they point out elDiario.es that other Chinese manufacturers that have recently arrived in Europe, such as Changan or Great Wall Motors (GWM) do not stop adding cars to the Catalan port.

Converted into fields. This massive arrival of cars has turned European ports into massive fields for Chinese manufacturers. So much so that Barcelona (which in 2025 it will receive 80% of Chinese cars purchased in Spain and 14% of those purchased in Europe) has underway a project to expand its capacity to assimilate cars, with the NYK shipping company willing to invest 75 million euros in a new terminal that could accommodate 180,000 cars a year.

The problem is that these spaces are at their limit because, as we say, cars are not allowed out at the expected rate. It is a story that It has been repeating for two years. Back then, the companies did not have a sufficient distribution network to assimilate the cars that were brought to Europe, but now the problems are different.

The problem now is that the manufacturers They are not finding enough truckers to move the cars to their destinations but, in addition, There are more Chinese brands fighting for ports Europeans and a country willing to get all the cars it can out of there.

We send them to Europe. For a few months we have been saying that China is determined to send all the cars it can to our continent. Actually, Europe is not its only target market, but the growth in electric sales (in May almost the same electric cars were sold as gasoline cars) and the absence of tariffs on plug-in hybrids make the European market ideal.

Chinese companies are encountering problems selling their cars in the local market but their factories continue to produce at full capacity. This has boosted exports to the point that they have taken almost 50% more electric vehicles out of the country than last year and 100% more plug-in hybrids.

Brad Setseran export specialist, shows how domestic sales are falling but exports are increasing at a devilish rate and that car production continues to grow. China seems determined to flood the market with the expansion of its brands and the shipment of more and more models even though the ports themselves act as a funnel.

It repeats. The situation experienced by European ports is similar to what is being experienced in other markets. As we counted a few weeks ago in XatakaMexico has wanted to impose tariffs on Chinese cars. Its problem is that when it wanted to collect the new taxes, the Chinese manufacturers had already landed thousands of cars there and had them available for distribution.

This strategy is accompanied by the commitment that China is making to what is known as the Global South. There, the manufacturers They are dethroning Japan as their priority customerexporting more and more cars that are sold at a more attractive price below the equator line where They already ship more cars than Europe and the United States combined.

Photo | Omoda and BYD

In Xataka | Japan had dominated total car sales for more than 20 years, until China knocked on the door