Volkswacht Bodensee - Afghan car trade screeches to a halt due to regional wars

The brakes were first put on the Spin Boldak market when cross-border violence with neighbouring Pakistan prompted the near-total closure of the frontier in October.

"When the border was closed with Pakistan, we also exported via (Iran's) Bandar Abbas port with many difficulties... but there was still a way," said Abdul Baqi Bina, deputy head of the Kandahar Chamber of Commerce and Investment.

Vehicle parts from Japan and elsewhere that used to reach Spin Boldak overland through Pakistan were rerouted through the United Arab Emirates, a longer and more costly path but one which at least allowed work to continue.

But then the Middle East war broke out in February, which Bina said "created very difficult problems for Afghanistan".

The conflict sparked massive disruption to international trade through the Strait of Hormuz, and shipping companies have cautioned that restoring normal operations through the vital waterway will take time.

The parts that reached Spin Boldak before the wars would be assembled to build new cars on site, or distributed nationwide for repairs.

Asadullah, who only has one name, imported from Dubai and Japan and said the conflicts have "paralysed business" for months.

"We opened two containers every day in the yard," he said, sitting in his office beside a whirling fan.

The price of each container shot up from about $2,000 to $8,000 after the outbreak of the Middle East war, the 40-year-old told AFP.

Asadullah said he currently has more than 30 containers stuck in Japan and the UAE, largely because of hold-ups at Dubai's Jebel Ali port which serves as a key logistical hub.

The World Bank in May described Afghanistan as "highly exposed to external shocks", with a "widening gap between imports and exports" that hit 70 percent of GDP in the 2025 fiscal year.

- 'It's a total loss' -

Masoud, who imports parts from Japan, said he had had no business "since the beginning of the war" in Iran.

"We used to import dozens, even hundreds of containers (monthly)... but now it's down to zero," he told AFP, beside a calculator and his accounting book.

Some of his containers had made it as far as the UAE, but he has started shipping them back to Japan due to mounting storage costs.

"We have no other option. I don't see any alternative way; it's a total loss," said Masoud, who does not have a surname.

The disruption has affected thousands of people who work at the Spin Boldak market, such as crane operator Mohammad Naeem.

"I'll have to leave this line of work and start to do something else" if the situation does not improve, said the 21-year-old.

In the dark workshops where cars would usually be built, men sat around while tools and wheels were idle.

Samiullah, a 30-year-old workshop owner who uses one name, said they used to make "five to seven cars per week" but work has stopped because there are no new parts arriving.

"If it continues like this, we will have nothing to do; we will sustain more and more losses," he said, because he must still pay his employees.

At a car showroom at the market, owner Noor Ali was surrounded by a dozen colourful vehicles built with imported Japanese parts.

"As few containers are coming to Spin Boldak, customers have decreased," he said, a month since he last sold a car.

"Hopefully they reach an agreement and (fully) open the Strait," he said, surrounded by his unsold vehicles.

R.Fischer--VB