Boom boosts Taiwan's export revenues

The export of bicycles, e-bikes and bicycle components from Taiwan has shown a strong growth in the first four months of 2022, the Taiwan Bicycle Association (TBA) reported during this year's Eurobike.

According to the Taiwan Bicycle Association, the nation’s industry is able to maintain a strong growth in export this year, following a hike in sales in 2021. In that year e-bike exports hiked by almost 38% to over 744,506 units from January to September in 2021. From January-April 2022 Taiwan total bicycle export revenues increased by 28.4% year-on-year and reached a total value of almost US$ 2 billion (€1.95 bn).

Components leading in export growth

The biggest growth was generated by the export of components. In the first four months of this year, they grew by 42.7% to reach a total value of over US$ 1 billion (€0.98 billion). That is no surprise looking at the supply chain constraints and the ongoing search for more and other suppliers by the A-brands and OEMs.

Leading export markets

The Taiwan Bicycle Association confirmed that the total export value in 2021 reached US$ 5.15 billion, which was nearly 40% higher than in 2020. Components increased by 56.7% totalling US$ 2.52 billion (€2.46 billion), for the calendar year; the export of e-bikes grew by 33.2% at a value of US$ 1.31 billion while complete bicycles grew by 19.1% totalling US$ 1.33 billion (€1.30 billion), in 2021.

The top three export markets in 2021 were the United States (24.3%), the Netherlands (17.5%) and Germany (13.1%).

E-bike imports into Europe soar to meet rapidly growing market

The 2021 import statistics of e-bikes into the EU make it clear that demand for e-bikes in Europe is outpacing the local production increases. Despite major investments in assembly facilities like at KTM in Austria, Cannondale in the Netherlands or Maxcom in Bulgaria, to name a few, supply from Asia remains relevant for the market. In 2021 the total import hiked by almost 30% from 884,862 units in 2020 to 1,144,597 e-bikes last year.

The biggest growth in export volume to Europe came from China, which proves that the country is able again to gain a more than healthy market share. Initially the e-bike export from China to Europe dropped to almost zero following the introduction of the anti-dumping duties. Last year, China exported a total of 280,107 e-bikes to Europe, a plus of 238% compared to 2020, making China the second largest e-bike supplier for the European market, after Taiwan. This country shipped 479,270 e-bikes to Europe in 2021, an increase of 6.58% compared with 2020. Other e-bike producing countries also benefitted from the sales boom in Europe. Vietnam reported a plus of 4.1% to 169,491 units, Turkey plus 71.77% to 101,045 units and even Thailand plus 315% to 23,973 e-bikes.

Major changes in Europe’s top-10 bicycle supplying countries

Despite the supply chain issues, the total volume of the Asian exporting countries into the EU increased sharply in 2021. China’s position as bicycle supplier for the European Union is rising rapidly. Last year the import of bicycles from China increased by more than 23% to almost 960,000 units. Besides Cambodia, all top-10 bicycle exporting countries report a sales increase ranging from a few percent to more than 70%. Cambodia lost a substantial export volume last year and if the trend continues, China will become the number one bicycle supplier for the European Union again in 2022. Two other remarkable rising stars in the top-10 list are India and Bangladesh. Percentage wise India even recorded the biggest growth in the import statistics with an increase of more than 70% to a volume of 344,449 units.

In total, the EU import volume hiked by 12.4% from 4,787,069 units in 2020 to 5,380,276 last year. Also, the import value showed a strong plus of 9% and for the first time exceeded the €1 billion mark. This total value was only tempered by a small decline in the average import price of 3% from €193 in 2020 to €187 in 2021.