Grimaldi Group will this month complete an order for 5 giant car carriers worth a combined $300 million to move vehicles made by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV between Europe and the U.S. The ships will carry 7,000 cars each on 13 decks.
Sales of car carriers are a barometer for car sales around the world, and the Grimaldi order signals rising optimism on that score. After some very bad years of the economy in the southern part of Europe, there will definitely be a pickup in car sales.
Many countries, like Italy, Spain and Portugal, have been suffering a lot from the crisis, and people have not changed their cars. In Italy, in the good years, there have been 2.4 million new-car sales annually; now it’s 1 million.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
