Taiwan bike makers facing cheap competition

This article was published by the Taiwan News on March 9, 2006. It reports that Taiwan's bike manufacturing industry is facing some serious competition from their Chinese counterparts. The Chinese bike makers are now scrambling to make the shift to quality manufacturing while trying to produce low-cost bikes for traditional markets like the United States.

According to the National Bicycle Dealers Association in the United States, although Taiwanese bike makers are continuously pushing for quality production, China has the price advantage. The only way to compete with those that sell cheap bikes is to emphasize on quality and the value of the products. In this sense, Taiwan is still on the right track.

Statistics provided by the Taiwan Bike Exporters' Association show that Taiwanese manufacturers shipped 4.2 million bikes worldwide from January to November 2005, up 7.96 percent from the previous year. The European Union, which accounted for nearly 66 percent of Taiwan's bike exports, bought nearly 2.8 million bikes during the same period. It was a 24-percent increase from the previous year.

Specifically, in 2005, Taiwan's exports to Belgium rose nearly 20 percent to 442,000. This made Belgium the third-largest importer of Taiwan-made bikes. Also in 2005, bike exports to Belgium comprised more than 10 percent of Taiwan's total exports.

Other European also purchased more Taiwan-made bikes in 2005. Exports to Spain grew a stunning 108 percent, while exports to Italy, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom also increased significantly.

However, the United States remains the largest market for Taiwan-made bikes, accounting for nearly 28 percent of Taiwan's exports. According to a national study conducted by the aforementioned National Bicycle Dealers Association in August 2005, Trek, Giant and Specialized were the best-selling bicycle brands in the United States. The study showed that the United States imported nearly 1.16 million bikes from Taiwan for a sum of US$286.36 million in 2005.