The export of damaged vehicles and the ever-increasing complexity of new vehicles could create a scarcity of used parts which will eventually lead to an increase in prices, fears a Quebec recycler.
• Read also: A headache to repair a car barely 10 years old
Éric Pellerin of the company Recyclage Pellerin has already mentioned the ever-increasing number of parts and their increasing complexity to explain why it can be difficult – or sometimes impossible – to find the part required to carry out a repair ( see other text).
But another factor comes into play: the appetite of foreign countries for damaged Quebec cars.
Based on his experience, Mr. Pellerin believes that 20 to 30% of damaged vehicles sold at auction – and which are for him an important source of recent parts – are exported, mainly to the Middle East.
“Myself, a small recycler in Plessisville, I sell 600 to 800 vehicles per year to exporters,” reveals Mr. Pellerin.
Modus operandi
An exporter first highlights to Mr. Pellerin the vehicles he is interested in at an auction and agrees with him on a purchase price. Some auctions even give these exporters the opportunity to buy directly.
The transaction is quick and interesting for the recycler. “And if it’s not me who sells it to him, it will be someone else,” he concedes.
“It increases the price of cars at auction and rarity will also increase the price of parts,” notes Mr. Pellerin.
No more work
And with higher prices for cars, recyclers must put more effort into properly valuing vehicles.
Éric Pellerin, boss of the Recyclage Pellerin company in Plessisville, in his office.
Provided by Recyclage Pellerin
“Before I could spend 5 to 8 hours a week at the auction. Today, it’s more like 20 to 25 hours per week to buy the same volume. A vehicle costing $800 to $1000 now sells for $2000 to $2500. We must not make a mistake, the margin of error must be reduced, otherwise the company is in danger,” he points out.
George Iny, from the Automobile Association (APA), was not aware of the phenomenon of exporting damaged cars. But he points out that “in the past, vehicle theft improved the availability of used parts.”
But as revealed by the investigation office of the Newspaper in October, thousands of stolen vehicles are now exported, particularly to Africa. They can no longer supply the used parts market either.
“We would like the government to help us. That would require a tax, believes Éric Pellerin. Exporters open a business in Canada, collect their taxes, load the vehicles into containers and send them out. It would take something to counter that.”
Win-win
But trade with exporters does not only have negative impacts on recyclers.
“I have another buyer who buys assembled mechanics, engine and transmission from me. I sell them every day. It also goes to the Middle East. Here we often get rid of a vehicle because of corrosion. There, it’s the opposite, they have no corrosion, but the sand is hard on the mechanics. It’s good because otherwise we would throw away 9 out of 10 mechanics. There is not enough demand in Quebec. There is good and bad in exporting,” says Éric Pellerin.